Seeking The Wilds
by lovelymayor
Summary: It is a time with no date. Judy Hopps is Seeker of the Hopps Clan, an elite scout with a mission to save her family. 'Nick' is pet fox to the rabbits, Judy's companion in her scouting. As the pair journey to the Meadowlands in search of a future, Nick and Judy encounter a life-changing experience. Cover image is a gift from the wonderful Steve Gallacci.
1. Chapter 1

"Judy, we need arable land. You're our only hope. The Hopps Clan keeps growing and it is fast becoming time to move. Can you do it?"

Judy's father's words echoed in her mind. "Yes, father." She had replied.

For three days, Judy had been on the trek. For three days, she had kept her tall, rabbit ears alert and her wits about her. The journey was long, but not without companionship. Hers was a unique duty – scout of the Hopps Clan – and with it came a unique tool.

Beside her, on all fours, strode Nick – the Hopps family fox.

As they crested a hill, Judy surveyed the valley below. She glanced to Nick, who had stopped at her flank. Seeing him then reminded her of when they had met, so long ago. She was a child, and he had held her. Once, her mother told her that Nick had been with her ever since she was born. Now they were grown, fit to serve the clan. Judy had seen two dozen summers, and Nick nearly three.

"Mother said you were abandoned… Small, mewling. She said that without us, you would have died." Judy's words lifted Nick's ears as he listened to her, and they both sat. They stared at the valley, purported to be the Meadowlands by the elders. It was their destination.

"The clan was protective of me for as long as I can remember. Fox, they called me. Well, all but one…"

Judy narrowed her eyes, trained senses picking through the scenery, the rocks and grass. Now she had seen these Meadowlands, and it would be the talk of the village – if she could return home. Through her left ear, she heard Nick's voice. Through the other, a gentle wind blowing in from the east.

"And we still are, Nick." Judy said, turning to him. She moved her paws downward, tugging at a corn husk pouch full of berries she had picked earlier on the journey. "I know you think of this as a hunt, though you refuse to consume the other mammals we come across… you know, your nose for these berries is more keen than any hunter's for their prey." There was a lilt of jest in her tone, the light of a smile appearing on her lips.

Nick grinned back at her, and dug his paw into the bag. Blueberries, as he expected. He retrieved enough for the moment and began popping them into his mouth.

"We're far from the burrows, Nick. Eat with some restraint?" Judy chuckled, then she jogged down the hill toward a flat rock amidst patches of grass. She climbed onto it, and felt the sun's warmth. She peered into the distance. The grass was green, and clear. It was perfect. The Meadowlands were as the elders had said; even the breeze from the east turned out to exist after all.

Behind her, Nick's natural grace easily allowed him to keep Judy's pace. He stopped near her, waiting as she climbed.

"Nick, come." She said plainly, as if such orders were commonplace. Nick slid up onto the rock, his lithe, naked body rubbing against Judy's coarse cotton clothing. "Look there. See how open the plains? We could make this our clan's home if we could make the journey. There have been no cataclysms here. No wars. At least, not ones the elders speak of…"

Nick looked, but he couldn't be the judge of something so important. He tucked his head down into Judy's lap as she observed. He licked her paw once. "I am here to support you, Judy. Whatever you decide, I have to agree. You are the scout – I am just a fox." There was no malice in his voice. Just facts.

Judy nodded. "But brave for a fox. And loyal. And kind." She moved her paw to rest atop his head, stroking the space between his large, dark ears. He was warm. The cool breeze whipping up from the flatlands ahead did not seem so bad with his body against hers. He closed his eyes, tired limbs from a long morning's travel sapping away his energy.

"Haha, exhausted, brave fox? Or are you playing the sly one, feigning sleep so you can escape your duties? I know you better than you think, Nick."

His ears raised instinctively at the sound of his name. "I am what you say, Judy, but I will never be a rabbit." He spoke without opening his eyes. Just words, no actions. Judy looked down at him. Her eyes softened as she saw him lying there, the familiar russet fur. She had always been able to pick him out from a crowd thanks to his fur. She was still young when he was grown. Now, age was irrelevant.

"You are as good as rabbit." Judy assured, running her paw down his back. "You work hard, though you hope no one finds out. You play at sly, but you are good in your heart. The Hopps Clan values you. Treasures you. Nick, I treasure you." Her own words startled her. Never had she said such things. What would the elders say? Her father? Had she fallen in love with the clan's pet? Surely they would renounce it. Call it foolish fraternization. But they all loved this fox. She just more than any.

"You're too good to this fox, Judy. If I were a wild f-"

"But you are not wild. You are ours." Judy interrupted. Nick was quick to defer to her.

"I've seen the way the other predators look at me in wartime. When they attack, they half expect me to join them. They look at me and wonder why you ride on my back, and why I don't eat you. What if I were taken? What would I tell them?"

Judy moved both her paws down to hold Nick's sides. She pressed her body down to hold her chest against the fox's back. Her fox.

"No predator will take you from us. You and I are inseparable. You are Hopps Clan, no other. Those predators you talk about, they're not like you. They're simple. You are special. A fox, raised among rabbits. This is a gift for you, don't forget. Just as you… Just as you were a gift to me, from father."

Nick stirred, sniffing the air. It gave Judy pause. She replicated the subtle twitch with her own nose, trying to catch the scent on the air.

"Speak." She whispered.

"A wolf." Nick replied, and Judy lifted her head. She kept her ears down, and her body pressed to him. "Stalking… to the east." His tail twitched. Judy stroked it to keep him calm.

And there was a wolf. She was hunting, not a hundred yards from where they sat.

"We do not attack… Merely hide. Or… Nick, down. We will track the wolf. We must know the scope of this threat." Judy tapped his back, and he slid off her smoothly. Together, they crouched in the grass. The scent of the wolf grew stronger, then weaker, in threatening ebbs. The scouting pair moved through the grass silently. Every few steps they would stop, check, and continue, circling around to stay behind the wolf, away from the range of its ears.

As Nick stalked, his mind wandered. How well would he do against a wolf? After all, Nick was as good as prey. He thought only rarely that his life was akin to that of a charmed slave. But he daren't speak such idle thoughts aloud to rabbits.

Now was the time to protect Judy, not to consider his place in the world.

Judy's paw moved to her garments, patting the sling tied to her waist. She removed it, and palmed a heavy stone. Her eyes cast down to Nick, observing his methods. He was on all fours, tail down and ears fallen. He sniffed and pushed his muzzle through the grass, creating a sensory dome around them that allowed him to catch the wolf's scent without it catching him. As long as they remained downwind.

The sun beat down, but a cool breeze from the crags beyond which lied the ocean, brought a subtle chill every so often. Nick and Judy had only heard stories of the ocean, a vast body of water, to which they were not to stray near. It was a dangerous place; unlike anything they knew. A thousand times a pond. Still, they could not help but wonder, and assign mystic importance to that salty hint in the air.

The wolf knew of the ocean. She had seen it. Once, she had swum there. There were not as many fish as she had been told.

This wolf was the first predator whose scent they had encountered on this mission. It was a good sign, a sign that at least the path to the Meadowlands was safe for the younger rabbits to cross. Only the presence of a wolf here, now, concerned Judy. The sudden prickle along Nick's back concerned her more.

Something had changed. Nick sensed it immediately, and he whispered to Judy.

"The wolf changes course. It approaches."

Judy cursed herself. She had not felt the wind change. The stone in her paw and the fox at her feet gave her comfort, but still her nose twitched in apprehension.

"Nick. Circle. Ensnare the wolf. We must fight for the Hopps Clan." Judy's orders came quickly, and then she moved through the grass away from Nick. He watched her, then moved on his own toward the other side. Carefully, they changed position to flank around the wolf, who did not have a pack they could smell to help it.

Judy suddenly thought that was odd. Under what circumstances could a wolf have no pack? Then her stomach ached. She remembered tales from the elders of lone wolves who drank blood and cared for nothing. Mad creatures who roamed dark forests and tore rabbits apart without effort. Was this such a wolf? A mad, lone wolf? She hoped her stone would strike true.

Nick was brave. He knew he was to first gain the attention of the wolf, so that Judy could attack from afar. They had practiced this many times, and successfully defended against wild cats and wolves in a pack with the help of other rabbits. But never a lone wolf. Nick could smell it strongly now, and was sure it could smell him. He carefully moved his paws wide, in case he was to pounce. Surely the wolf thought the same. But the wolf had no Judy to help it.

He waited, tucked into a patch of grass before a broad, flat space amidst all the vegetation. He knew the wolf had to cross the open space, and then he would have the upper paw. Soon, it came. A blotch of white. The color of Judy's palms. In her mouth, the wolf held a bundle of mice by their tails. She wore no clothes, like him. She moved slowly, unlike a skilled hunter ought to.

Nick pounced out of the brush, his lips curled in a fearsome display of teeth. He growled. The wolf, taken by surprise, dropped the mice. Nick knew he had to hold the wolf's attention long enough for Judy to-

The rock came. It sailed down from Judy's position on a raised rock, striking the wolf in the ribs and bowling her over. She yelped as she fell, her tongue falling out. Nick approached the wolf, ready to kill. Ready to bite the neck and kill the enemy, the threat to the Hopps Clan.

But then, he saw the wolf's eyes. He saw her fear. He saw her regret. She panted, and on her side a red rose of blood blossomed.

"Peace…" She begged, her eyes wide and her breaths ragged. "Cubs."

Nick stopped at the word. Cub. This was no lone wolf. No monster. This was a mother, alone, lost, and struggling to feed her pups. He could not bring himself to bite her neck. Above, Judy watched in confusion, and worry. She pitched herself downward, scooping up another rock and approaching the two carnivores.

"Nick! Kill!" She commanded, her legs shaking. Never had she been so close to a wolf. It was enormous, bigger than it seemed from afar. The ears and the muzzle, the bushy tail: these were all similar to Nick.

Nick simply turned his head. He gathered himself up in a sitting position and he lowered his ears. "But I cannot." He muttered, bitter that he almost could. That he almost had. Judy took the rock from her sling. She approached the wolf and raised the heavy rock above her head.

"The wolf is threat. I will not abide threat to my Clan or my fox." This she addressed to Nick, but the wolf heard. The wolf, she knew the rabbit's conviction. She saw it, and she knew she was about to die.

But still, she pleaded, "Cubs…" And wheezed a long sigh of breath.

Judy's arms lowered and she looked to Nick, whose head was down. "You are the lone wolf. You are monster in the forest, why do you play at this trick? Where is your pack, lone wolf?" She asked the wolf, her tone still commanding.

"No pack." The wolf mumbled, wincing at the pain in her side. "Mother only… And cubs."

Her words were strange. Soft. Not the growl of a predator. But did all predators not growl? Well, not her Nick.

"Y-you… You wolf. Mother…" Judy stumbled over her words. She caught sight of the bundle of mice, killed clean and untorn.

Nick finally spoke, "She held them in her mouth, as if to make delivery. No doubt a mother."

And Judy knew Nick could not lie to her. She knew this wolf must be a mother, hunting small to feed small cubs. But still, why a lone wolf? Where was this wolf's pack?

"Where is your pack, wolf. Where? Why don't you have a pack?" Judy's voice quavered, and her conviction disappeared, leaving her only with the ache of worry in her stomach that she had felt earlier.

"No pack." The wolf gasped, licking her lips, and Judy realized it was the wolf's tears flowing from her eyes that had moistened her face. "He Alpha sleeps omega, omega a mother be. She Alpha casts omega from pack... It is law."

The words were strange, alien to Judy. Alpha? Omega? What were these words? What was the wolf hiding? She would have to ask the elders what they knew once she returned home. For now, she knew only one thing. That the wolf was a mother, and through this, had not sought to hunt or harm her. But wouldn't she, someday?

"Cubs… Cubs grow into wolves… And a threat is made." Judy reasoned aloud, still clutching her stone.

The wolf whined as she sensed the rabbit coming to a decision. Nick only watched, obedient.

"Why threat? Peace. Peace for cubs." The wolf begged.

Judy hurt. Her body hurt, and her heart hurt. She couldn't kill this wolf. Perhaps another, but not this wolf. A small part of her understood everything about this wolf's pain, her struggle. Another, larger part knew only her life in the Burrows, disturbed only rarely by strife and never by hunger. But she saw the blood spoiling the wolf's white fur, and she felt strange.

She felt strongly of – Guilt.

Nick's eyes lifted, watching Judy as she removed her satchel. From it she pulled the gourd of liniment, made from herbs and the oils of vegetables. She kneeled to the wolf's side, and the wolf whined and quaked in fear as she sensed her death.

"No." Judy whispered, softly, comfortingly, "Be still. I will help you." She spread the liniment on her paws, the off white liquid, and she pressed it gently over the wolf's bloodied fur. She found the wound and, though the wolf screamed in pain, she rubbed the medicine given to her to save her life in battle against it. The pain in the wolf's side faded, and her eyes watered not in fear, but in relief. Then, Judy unfurled a long, flat, rough cotton. She wrapped this around the wolf, who curled to allow it. She raised a bit, her front paws forward and her back paws resting to the side.

"You are... good rabbit." The wolf said softly, averting her eyes from Judy. Judy wiped her paws clean on the grass. Then, she stroked the wolf's back as if in apology. She felt the soft fur, like Nick's beneath her fingers. She felt a familiarity and a strange newness. She still felt guilt. Why should a wolf think her good? Why had a wolf any cause to think a rabbit bad, if all wolves did was hunt and kill rabbits?

"We go now, wolf. Take your mice. Feed your cubs. But hunt not a rabbit if you value their lives." With those words, Judy took up her satchel and sling, and clicked her teeth to summon Nick, who swooped alongside her. The wolf did not attack them, even though they had broken the old adage to 'never turn your back on a wolf.' The wolf only sat, and gathered up her mice. Nick looked back as he disappeared into the grass. Judy looked back, too. They saw the blotch of white fur. And the saw the soft blue of her gentle, mother's eyes.

"Nick." They were a good distance away now. Headed home to report on the Meadowlands. Nick's ears rose when he heard his name. "You… Did good. To not kill the wolf. You're a good fox. You're… a kind fox. The kindest." Nick rubbed against her, their fur intermingling.

"I do not know what tale I will tell the elders… I surprise myself, because I wish to lie."

"Then lie." Said Nick, no force in his voice. Judy thought she would. She knew she would face punishment for how she had left the wolf, left the threat. What would her father say? The elders? But the Meadowlands were not Judy's home. They were the wolf's home, not the home of the Rabbit Clan. Why, then, should they take it? Judy bitterly wondered if it were possible, ever, in a hundred summers, for the wolf to stay with them as Nick did. How far was a wolf from a fox, if a fox could be kind?


	2. Chapter 2

Three days passed. During daylight, were it cool, Nick and Judy would make trek toward home, following the signs and their inerrant memories. Travel to home was always the easy part. It was back through known territory, back through paths and landmarks already committed to memory. They foraged from berry bushes they knew well, picked mushrooms, and found no hunger on their journey. They drank from streams and found no thirst. They made sure to avoid the darker, deeper forests.

It was the fourth dawn when they saw the Burrows on the horizon. The familiar stretches of farmland and huts filled Judy with a longing, like she always felt when she returned home. She knew that, like clockwork, she would soon long to travel outward again, as was her duty. Nick brushed up against her, padding on all fours while she walked alongside him.

"Judy, what will you tell your father?" It wasn't like him to speak out of turn, but the experience had shaken him.

"Nick… I will tell my father that we wounded a wolf. I will tell him that the Meadowlands are a good place, and that maybe to the west, further from the ocean's salt, we will find good land for our homes."

"So you will lie." Nick observed, trying to veer away from sounding judgmental.

Judy was silent for a long moment. Then she nodded.

"I will lie."

Hopping on rocks over a slow stream, the pair soon came within the distance of a thrown stone from the Burrows. They crossed beside a field of lettuce and caught the attention of young bunnies tending to the crops. In moments they were surrounded by bouncing children and even some adults, eager for news of her mission. Nick couldn't help but smirk at all the rampant hopping.

"Now now, young bunnies, we must report to father. Look how you shirk from your work at the first sign of interest." Judy chided, half-laughing. "We'll all starve if you run from the fields so easily!"

"But sister we want to know too!" They complained, bouncing and pulling her clothes. The other bunnies were dressed similarly to Judy, and did not balk once at Nick's nakedness. They were all quite used to it. One by one they broke off and went back to their work, save for a small bunny not four years old that Nick cradled in his arms.

"This one is too small, why was she in the fields?" He asked Judy, petting the small bunny's head as she sucked her thumb.

"Oh, Lucinda. You mustn't stray from the huts. The fields are… The fields are for bigger girls and boys." Judy explained, looking down into her sister's large eyes. She wasn't mad. She was just concerned. More than once small bunnies had been snatched by loathsome predators skulking on the edges of Burrows land. She didn't want to tell little Lucy that such was the reason for her concern, so she took a different route.

When they reached the huts, Nick set Lucinda down and she hurried off into the arms of an older sibling. Judy waved at the sights of her sisters and brothers, and they were happy to see her. As it was their first sight of her, they knew better than to expect her to speak to them. They all knew she had to speak to their father first.

Judy approached the hut with the heavy wood door. She knocked twice, then opened it. Nick stayed outside, curling up into a sitting position and licking at the backs of his paws. Inside the hut, light peeked through the thatched roof. There her father sat in the spartan room in a chair made from branches, his expression changing to one of joy to see his daughter return safely. Judy sat, folding her legs together on the floor. She waited to be addressed.

"Judy, Seeker, my daughter, I am overjoyed that you have returned safely." Stu said, his mature eyes squinting as he smiled. "Though only six days, our hearts have missed you. Tell me now, Seeker. What did you see? Are the Meadowlands a safe place? Did you and your fox find our new home?"

Judy took a breath, and then she spoke:

"Father, the Meadowlands are a place of peace. To the east are crags and the whisper of the ocean. To the west are broader plains that may be tamed by our methods."

"And have you any reason to suspect danger or strife on the journey?"

Judy shook her head. "The journey is safe. We only needed to hide but once. There were plentiful streams and sources of food, though we would have supplies should we journey as a village."

Stu nodded. "And the lands themselves. What dangers did you encounter?" He took up a pipe made from a husk of corn and began to smoke from it. Then he drank from a crude bowl of water, made from a rock rubbed against another.

Judy looked away for a moment. She exhaled. Her emotions surged and swirled inside her, and she knew she had to control them before she could speak. She remembered the wolf's voice. She remembered its white fur with a patch of blood like the sunset in a hazy sky. She remembered Nick's hesitation… His kindness where hers hadn't been.

"Father, Nick and I… We caught scent of a wolf. A wolf, but no pack. We followed and observed this wolf at a safe distance. Soon, the wolf turned toward us, and we had no choice but plan an ambush. Though I injured the wolf with my sling, it escaped. Nick's nose is true: this wolf had no pack. The danger of one wolf is… small, father. It is surmountable. We could tend the Meadowlands."

Stu leaned back in the chair, and it creaked in the silence. He looked pensive, and he smoked on his pipe for several moments before speaking.

"Then we might prepare to move soon. Good work, Judy. You are my prized daughter. I will send you once more to the Meadowlands before we begin preparations. We must wait for the current crops to yield. Then… Then we shall go to our new home."

Judy was relieved, but she did not show it; she knew better. She stood, slowly, as her father opened his arms. The embrace was warm and familiar. She had known this all since childhood. Like she had known her trustworthy fox. When she drew away from her father, he looked her in the eyes.

"I have lived a long time, Judy. I have lived so long that I have forgotten my first summers. In all my time working the earth and raising you children, never have I caught scent of a lone wolf. Never. When your sling struck the wolf. You saw it? Tell me."

Judy was not expecting such questions. Her father had seemed so satisfied. But now he was serious, his brown eyes shrunken with fear. He held her more tightly than he ought to, more protectively than in a long time.

"Father… The wolf was a white wolf. It hunted alone, for field mice. We caught no scent nor heard no howl of another wolf. This wolf, when struck… Did not howl. Did not seek help. This wolf was alone, father. This wolf had no one." Her mind was choked with memory. She had not realized before the lack of tell-tale howling. Never had she heard a wolf with no howl.

'Cubs…' She recalled, and thought of her young sisters – thought of Lucinda.

"You will now consult the elders, Judy. You will ask them for advice. In a week's time you will return to the Meadowlands, my Seeker. We must be sure of its safety. Go now." Stu said, kissing her forehead. "And once you have spoken with the elders, see your mother. She has fretted."

Judy only reluctantly left her father's hut. She saw Nick sitting outside and reached to pet his head and rub his ears.

"Come, Nick. We go now to the elders." She said, and he stood. He was always perfectly capable of standing, but more often than not he would walk on all fours. Judy thought it had something to do with his predator species. To Nick, it was merely comfortable. Together, Nick and Judy crossed the village toward the long hut where the elders stayed.

The elders had long been too old to work the fields, but the Hopps Clan respected age. They were Judy's grandparents – her father's parents, and her mother's mother. Judy's grandfather on her mother's side had died during a predator attack years ago. He had been out for a walk. It was quick, too quick, and no one purported to know what manner of predator had done the deed.

This time, when Judy entered the hut, Nick followed her. Two large patches of hay arranged into beds sat on either side of the hut. There was little else save for crude jugs of water made from clay, baskets storing dried vegetables, and a table and chairs. Judy's grandmothers appeared to be working on their knitting and trading stories, while her grandfather whittled a small wooden object, a carving. When more light from outside entered with Judy, they noticed her and paused their crafting.

"Judy!" It was almost in unison that they exclaimed her name, opening their arms to receive a hug and a cheek rub each. Even in the dim light, Judy could see and appreciate the similarities between these rabbits and her parents.

Nick rested nearby, sitting on his haunches again and watching the rabbits exchange pleasantries. He was sure they saw him, and he was sure he was nearly as rabbit as everyone in the Hopps Clan, but still he was not so used to such affection save for that which he received from Judy.

"I have come for council, good elders." Judy said, separating from the last hug and sitting down with her legs crossed as she had done for her father. Nick came to rest in her lip.

"Speak, Judy." Her grandfather encouraged, setting his whittling aside.

"In the Meadowlands, Nick and I encountered a lone wolf. But this wolf did not appear as in the old stories. It was no bigger nor bloodier than an average wolf." Judy worked through her words, still confused by what had happened.

Her grandmothers looked between each other. One said, "Lone wolves are dangerous, Judy. Too dangerous to combat. You ran, surely?"

Judy nodded. Again, she lied.

"Lone wolves…" Judy's grandfather spoke, and the others listened. "They are dangerous because they are desperate. Imagine living without your brothers and sisters, Judy. Imagine living without your fox. Such is the life of a lone wolf. It is no wonder they go mad."

"And what of these terms: alpha, omega? We- we overheard the wolf." Judy felt as if her lie would be caught then and there. She was worried. Would she be admonished? Separated from Nick?

There was a silent moment, and Judy felt as if any moment the pain of disapproval would hit her ears.

Sensing this, Nick swished his tail and rubbed the back of his head against Judy's paw. She rubbed him gently in reply, looking up at her grandparents.

"These are wolf words," Her mother's mother said with a deep sigh, "heard only in old times when we once encountered wolves often. The alpha are the leaders of the pack, like your father leads our Clan. An omega is the least respected member. Subservient to all others. The refuse of the pack."

So this was the meaning behind the wolf's words. She had been with an alpha, but her place was omega. That explained her expulsion. Judy knew of such ranks in different terms. For example, she wouldn't dream of speaking out of turn to her father, and her younger siblings similarly deferred to her. Nick… Nick was deferential to all. But why? He was taller. Stronger. He could end a life at any time, and Judy knew that.

Nick knew, too. He knew, but he didn't think of it. It was far from the realm of possibility. He was a good fox, and he belonged to the Hopps Clan. Still, it begged the question. Why were not all predators good, and kind, and peaceful with the Hopps Clan? Did they need to be raised from birth, their cruel natures eased out of them by a loving rabbit family? Nick and Judy's minds raced with these thoughts as if they were connected.

"Judy." Her grandfather spoke again. "You must not stay your paw when it comes to a wolf. Lone or not. They are murderers of rabbits, little more. If you are granted such an opportunity again, to draw near to a lone wolf, suffer it not to live. Do you understand?"

It was an ultimatum. A law. Judy knew it like she knew many laws. Never strike a Clan member. Never leave the Clan grounds alone; even she had to have Nick with her at all times. Never lie.

Nick stirred, affected by the incongruity of the events. He hadn't wished to speak out of defiance, originally, but sheer curiosity. His tone sounded more insolent than he wished.

"But… Does this not make us the wolf?" Nick said, and Judy stared at him. They all stared. "This wolf hunted not us. Why pursue the wolf? Kill it with no reason? Because it is wolf?"

Judy's father's mother frowned, her wrinkled features creasing even further. "Calm your pet, Judy. He does not understand. We fight to defend, we Hopps. We are but food to the wolf, nothing more."

Judy did try to calm Nick; she stroked along his back although the fur there was bristling and rising in upset. His tail swished, and he turned from Judy's lap to face the elders.

"And a fox? What if a fox? What if me in the grass? Kill me too, before all else? For safety?" Nick was demanding an answer out of turn; for him to talk in such a way was unimaginable. Judy hadn't any idea where he got such notions. The Hopps clan all loved him, surely, so why should he feel so personally attacked?

"Nick…" Judy spoke gently, trying to calm him, but Nick would not be placated so easily. He turned and left, pushing open the flap of the door and letting in a momentary abundance of light from the sun outside. Judy was stricken with guilt, immediately accepting the vague, unspoken blame on behalf him. Such was the way of things, to act with humility and filial piety. Nick had been taught the same, but now she felt as if she was truly seeing what lie within his heart.

Judy turned her head up to her elders, who in turn looked to each other.

"Rein in your fox, Judy." One said, before going back to her knitting.

"See that he does not take such tone in the future. He is lucky he has cause to take tone at all, what with our saving him from the unknown of the wild." Said another, shaking his head in disapproval.

Judy nodded. It was time for her to go. Time to see to Nick, and to greet her mother. She stood, and she bowed her head deeply, and she wished she had not told anyone about the wolf at all.


	3. Chapter 3

When Judy pushed open the fabric door of the hut, she was greeted with the warm caress of the midday sun. It felt good on her bare arms and chest, and she basked for just a moment, eyes closed in thought. It was only seconds before she opened her eyes and began looking for Nick.

"Nick?" She called, at first inquisitively, then in with a tone of command, "Nick! Come!"

But he did not come, for he was nowhere near.

Though a fox was skilled in stealth, Judy was sure that one of the other rabbits had seen him. She saw her sister, tall and thin, and approached her with an urgent jog.

"Melody! Have you seen Nick?"

Melody was carrying a basket of lettuce, freshly picked. Her light brown fur contrasted with Judy's, and her paws were dirty from working the earth. Judy knew that her sister preferred to study the ways of the world with the elders. When she heard Judy's request, she raised her eyebrows and laughed, her dark eyes closing.

"Scout Judy, is that any way to greet your sister, from whom you have long been away?"

Judy frowned and sighed, her shoulders sagging.

"Yes, yes I'm sorry Melody, it is so good to see you well. Now, have you seen my fox or not?"

Melody nodded. "I have seen him. He flitted off like a flying bug toward our mother in her garden grove. Never have I seen him with such a pained expression."

Judy reached out to hug her sister around the shoulders, taking care not to knock the basket of lettuce away.

"Thank you, sister!" She exclaimed, genuinely, and then she ran off.

Melody watched, smiling and shaking her head as her sister rushed toward the other end of the clan grounds. She thought her lucky to have such a fox, a tame fox, a rabbit of a fox that knew no ill will toward them.

As Judy trotted down the paths, waving to her siblings, she soon came to her mother's grove. It was just off a path in a copse of tall birch trees. She approached quietly, not wanting to disturb her mother's work. Immediately, her eyes caught the sun's rays through the lines of trees. They poured down on the familiar, orange-crimson fur of her fox, as he rested in her mother's lap.

"Mother?" Judy said as she stepped through the trees.

Bonnie, her mother, was sitting amidst the flowers she grew. The bright purples, reds and yellows dotted the grove, and Bonnie wore a fabric dress dyed blue from the petals of previous blooms. In her lap, Nick rested, and she hummed softly to him. His ears were down, relaxed, and he breathed slowly and quietly. When Judy neared, Bonnie looked up with a smile.

"Judy." She replied, stroking her paw along Nick's back. "When I saw Nick approach, I knew you both to be safe, and rarely am I happier than when you return safe."

Judy tucked her head down under a branch and came to her mother's side. She knelt, and reached out to put her paw on Nick's neck.

"I'm sorry, Nick… You are truly hurt by all this, aren't you?" Judy asked, softly, her voice a whisper.

Bonnie sensed this hardship from the moment she saw Nick. "Your fox did not speak," she said, "he only came to me to rest with me and offer me his warmth. What has hurt him? And Judy, what has hurt you?"

"Mother, I…" Judy struggled with her words. Her brow lowered in mental agony, and she absently reached to paw at one of her hanging ears. "In the Meadowlands, Nick and I found combat with a lone wolf."

Bonnie nodded, her eyes fixed upon the gentle rise and fall of Nick's back.

"This wolf, we thought it monstrous, as the stories tell. But when Nick surprised the wolf, it did not fight. When we… When we struck the wolf, it did not fight. Only when I drew near to kill it did it speak to me. It begged to me, to spare it for the lives of its cubs. I saw this wolf's eyes, mother. It did not fear death for pain's sake, but for the sake of its cubs. I lied to all others, to father and the elders, but I cannot lie to you, mother. Not to you…"

For a long pause, Bonnie was silent. She had stopped humming, but her paw continued to stroke Nick's back. Then, her other paw reached to rest upon Judy's thigh. This drew Judy's eyes up to hers, and she looked into them warmly.

"You have learned something, Judy. You have learned that other mammals, sometimes… Sometimes they are like us. You have learned that not all predators hunt rabbits, is it not so? When I hear what you say… I feel as this fox feels, for I am a mother, so too is he a predator. Do we not have more in common with this wolf than any other?"

Judy nodded in understanding.

"No lone wolf can offer us peace from other wolves, just as no lone bunny can offer peace from all bunnies. But these threats, they are life. I suspect your encounter will not stay father's decision to move our clan. We do not have long left here, with the land as worked as it is, and our numbers as they are."

Again, Judy nodded. She said nothing.

"I think you did the right thing, Judy." Bonnie said, and Nick raised his head. His eyes were wet with tears, and he whimpered in his throat.

"Just as I did long ago." Bonnie whispered, smiling at the fox. "Judy, you may not remember, but when you were too young, this gentle fox was mine. He was mine because I spoke so strongly against a worse fate when the Hopps Clan first found him. I spoke against killing him out of need for safety. For what good is safety that involves the death of a cub? I was younger then, and just like you, Judy. So we took in the fox. Nick, I named him, and so I raised him. I raised him to respect life, and to love. Do you remember when I gave him to you? You had turned eight. You were so small, but your heart and your dreams so large."

"I remember, mother." Judy said as she listened, and she squeezed Nick.

"It was a warm day. Fall," Bonnie continued, "and you had always loved Nick. You slept cuddled with him all the time. You were so happy to have him be 'yours.' Where your sisters and brothers did not trust him fully, you trusted him implicitly. I knew that when you began to train to be a scout that he would be of great used to you. That he would protect you as I could not, far out in the wilderness. And he has done so, always…"

Bonnie leaned down, and placed a kiss on the soft fur of Nick's forehead.

"So when you worry that you are not one of us, that we will turn on you, you must not. You must remember this Clan's past and your life with it. You are no rabbit, but you are no less Hopps Clan. Do you understand? Though you are Judy's, you are still mine, and I will always love you as I love my children."

Judy watched as Nick nodded up to Bonnie, his eyes wet, and Judy cried too. She had feared losing her fox many times, but never like this, when she met the wolf and heard the words of the elders. In the back of her mind, she knew not all rabbits saw Nick as she and her mother did. Memories of hearing arguments late at night flooded back to her. It was those nights that she had clung to Nick most tightly.

All Nick could manage to say was a "Thank you" and then he sighed and sniffled and tried to catch his breath.

Bonnie was glad he had come to her, and she was glad Judy had returned. She sat with them for the time being, knowing that their next mission would be even more dangerous than the last. Stu was planning to send them out again, once more, while the rest of the Hopps Clan prepared for exodus.

"Come and lay with Nick and your mother, Judy." Bonnie offered, opening an arm for Judy to collapse into. There the three rested amidst the sun's warmth, the colors and pleasant scents of nearby flowers around them.


	4. Chapter 4

Once again, the Meadowlands were stretched before them. Once again, Judy and Nick sat upon a flat rock in the midday sun, passing berries to each other from pouches made of folded leaves tied with strips of pliable bark.

Judy shielded her eyes as she looked out across the valley where they had met the wolf. She knew that it was not their destination. Instead, they would be heading west into unexplored territory to decide once and for all whether the Meadowlands were safe.

"Judy." Nick's voice came through a mouthful of blueberries. He seemed to pick and choose them from the pouches, hoarding them for himself. "Your father's will is to move here. I am no farm fox, but…"

"But, Nick, we must obey. He is leader of our clan. He and the elders. The land we farm has thin soil, and will soon yield nothing. These lands are yet fertile. I hope that we can come here." As she spoke, she continued to stare into the distance. Occasionally she popped a strawberry into her mouth and chewed.

"What else do you hope?" Nick asked, ears raised curiously.

"I hope…" Judy had to pause to think. What did she hope for? Peace? Love? What would happen when all was safe? Would she stay with the clan or strike out on her own? It had been a long time since there was contact with any other rabbit clan. Judy was unsure whether a potential made even existed. And where that left Nick… she didn't know.

"Nick, I hope that we can both be happy one day. That we can both find something to keep us happy."

The words were unclear on purpose. Didn't they already each have that something?

The soft breeze from the east seemed to blow as if directing their passage. Further trek west revealed even more broad, flat plans, though untamed by the paw of a farming clan.

"Do you think we'll find more wolves?" Judy asked, pressing her paw to a birch tree as if to channel the memory of her mother's grove.

"I can't say. I hope to never see another wolf again." Nick replied. He kept low, on all fours with his head barely above the grassline. Packs tied to his back carried provisions and water. "Judy, wait. I smell something."

Judy again cursed the relative weakness of her sense of smell compared to Nick's. She smiled wryly and stroked his back. "Ever the alarm. What is it?"

"It is… char. Burn. Like a fire pit to roast carrots and tell tales."

Fire? Judy's eyes narrow. Fire meant intelligence. Even worse, fire also meant the wanton, callous whims of Nature's Doe, the rabbit from which all had spawned. Which was it this time? Judy crouched low and follow Nick toward the smell, the end of his tail like a guiding beacon through the bushes and tall grass. Patiently, she scanned the horizon for signs of smoke, but found none. No fire seemed to burn at present.

Nick stopped in front of her, his tail signaling her to do the same with a slightly up-down motion of the tip. She held her position, and then she saw the black tip of a tree standing out against the blue-grey sky to the northwest.

"I see it, Nick. Do you smell mammals?" Judy asked, and her paw reached out to grip the end of Nick's tail gently.

"No mammals but you and I." Nick answered. He continued walking a moment later, pulling Judy along. As they neared the tree, its true form become clear. It was not a tree. It was a structure. There were several of them, burned out homes, the skeletal lines of their construction made that evident. Huge swaths of black, charred ground surrounded the charcoal bones of what must have been a village.

For once, both Nick and Judy were speechless. The village looked like enough to house dozens of rabbits, though not a clan as large as Clan Hopps. They could see the echoes of paths between the destroyed structures, but there was no indication of what could have done this.

"Nick. A lightflash? Or… Or someone…" Judy held her breath. The strong, flight-inducing scent of burning surrounded her. She knew logically that she was in no danger, but a cold trepidation crept into her body.

Nick didn't answer. He didn't know. But he sensed Judy's apprehension and stayed close to her, ensuring that his body was continually touching hers in some small way. The fur on his back stood on end and her swooped his head left and right, anticipating some unknown danger.

"This is a dark place. I feel… I almost feel as if this happened recently…" Nick's voice was soft. He was trying to stay quiet, just in case.

"Then we will work to know." Judy decided. She moved away from Nick and caught his eyes as she did. She pointed to another structure. "Go. Search." She commanded, and Nick did so. He pushed his nose through collapsed piles of burned wood and ash, searching for anything that would give some small hint of information.

Meanwhile, Judy investigated the remnants of another structure. Marks in the ground seemed to indicate the former presence of bed boxes and furniture. The ashen husk was once lived in, and she was flooded with thoughts of something so terrible happening to her own village. How could so many Hopps Clan bunnies escape the predatory licks of a hungry flame? She shut her eyes tightly and shook her head to resist the horrible temptation of that line of thinking.

Judy slowly pushed against a burnt pile of wood, fearing at first to touch it as if it were still hot. As it tumbled aside, she looked at the space beneath it and the area around it. There were scratches. Claw marks, they were unmistakable.

"Nick!" She called, turning her head toward him.

Nick came running, darting over and ducking under fallen lengths of burn trees.

"Nick, look. Scratches. Put your paw there. How big are they?"

Judy watched as Nick put his paw down amidst the scratches. There were four lines, and they were spaced more broadly apart than the shiny black nails on Nick's paws.

"A wolf, Judy?"

"No… No… What wolf knows fire? No, it can't be…"

"Then what?"

Judy wished she had an answer. Instead, she lied.

"I… I do not know."

"I saw more such marks in the other structure. The claws of wolves. Fearsome and many, or… Or one and berserk."

"Either is bad. This is a bad place, Nick. We should continue on."

Judy took Nick by the strap on his back and pulled him with her away from the wreckage of the village. She headed westward still, head hung low and she pondered what it all meant for the Clan.

Nick knew this even without asking.

After an hour of overland travel, the beginnings of a mountain range became visible. It had been on the horizon for some time, but the hills were growing more steep and rocky.

"For a moment, here, we will rest." Judy's instructions came as a surprise to Nick. They hadn't traveled far from the burnt village. Nevertheless, he curled up at her feet as she sat in the grass and the shadow of a grey boulder.

"Let me think… Nick, do you know how father knew of the Meadowlands? How should he know of this place where he has never been?"

Nick spoke without lifting his head. "Perhaps the elders told him, for they are wizened and know much."

"No… I think not. Nick, do you remember the Bin-Kie Clan?"

"The traders. They came to the Hopps Clan last… some six summers past, yes. Jolly mammals, them."

"Yes… They know much of the world through their travels. I heard from a Bin-Kie girl they had traded with many sorts of mammals, mammals of which I have not seen not heard. Gnu. Buffalo. Mammals with great horns, tall as trees."

"It must be so. If they know these lands, was that their village?"

Judy shook her head. "It couldn't be. I smelled no Clan Stones and saw none placed around the village. A rabbit clan would be foolish not to identify its land with such stones."

Nick shrugged, his shoulders rising and falling listlessly as he rested his muzzle on his paws. "Then I have no other guess."

A sudden rustling broke the quiet moment. Nick and Judy flew into response, Judy pulling her sling from her waist and Nick raising to stand on all fours and sniffing about. Something was coming out of the grass near the edge of a forest that flanked the beginnings of the mountain behind them. Out of the corner of her eye, Judy saw a cave in the mountainside that she hadn't noticed. Caves meant few things, but all of them were bad.

"Nick… Nick, stay back." Judy whispered. She crouched and thrust herself up into the air, landing atop the boulder they had been resting against. She took a stone from a pouch and pulled the sling back, waiting quietly for the creature to show itself.

Out of the grass toddled the tiny body of a wolf cub. It was white-grey, dappled with dirty-looking patches of darker fur that, perhaps, it would outgrow to match the white pelt of its mother.

As Nick and Judy watched, the cub yipped and its tail began to wag. It did not back away in fear. Instead, it came toward them, sniffing with excitement.

A moment later, a familiar white shape moved out of the grass and Judy almost let fly her stone. It was the mother wolf from their last scouting in the Meadowlands. She was looking better, stronger, though Judy could see her walk with the slightest of limps. She called out to the cub, her attention on it rather than Nick and Judy.

"Kida, no no." She said, padding toward the cub. She circled around it and licked its head. "Out, no. Danger. Why do you go… Cub…" Her lips were curled into a smile, some slight amusement in her voice. Then she raised her head, and her body flinched when she caught sight of Judy. Her jaw fell and her eyes widened. Quickly, she circled herself around the cub and turned her head. When she looked again, her expression softened.

"You! You were… kind rabbit. Are you still?" Her eyes darted around, searching for Nick's red fur amidst the light green grass. She knew him to be near. The painful memory of their last encounter ensured she would never forget.

Judy held the sling for a few moments. Then she lowered it, and she felt the feeling of guilt return to her belly.

"Come out, Nick, come out. Be kind." Judy said. Nick poked his nose from the tall grass as Judy jumped down from the boulder.

"You live here?" Nick asked the wolf. He sat on his haunches.

The wolf remained in a protective position. Her cub peeked between her legs at the two unfamiliar creatures.

"I try." The wolf said, a hint of dejection in her tone. "Do you… do you hunt me? My cubs?"

Judy swallowed. "No, no…" She tried to assure the wolf, but she knew it was little consolation. The cub was small, small like one of her baby siblings, and she felt bad.

"Wolf, you… Wolf, tell us, tell us of the black village." Judy knew this was her one chance to make sense of the village. Perhaps the wolf looked at her. She looked at Nick for reassurance, but he was staring at the wolf and her cub. He was smiling.

Finally, the wolf laid down around her cub. She kept it between her forelegs, and she licked and groomed it carefully.

"Kida, bad you leave the cave. Sisters do not leave. Why you, always you?" It was the voice and the words of a concerned mother, like Bonnie's voice when Nick and Judy were still young.

Kida didn't reply with words, only yips and little noises that were new to Nick and Judy. He rolled onto his back and his mother licked at his belly.

"The village… Please." Judy repeated.

The wolf nodded her head. She turned it to Judy and spoke. "Village of rabbits, once. Moons past since it burn black."

Judy narrowed her eyes. "I saw marks, wolf. Maybe claws, maybe your claws. Did you attack the village? Do you use fire of make, or… or of lightflash, to help you kill the rabbits?" She was suspicious. The marks were wolf marks, they had to be.

The wolf knit her brow in confusion. "No. I only smell fire, see smoke. My home is cave. My pack…" She caught herself, and stopped talking briefly. She closed her eyes as if in pain. "Old pack home is forest, deep in forest. There trees have marks of territory. Claws."

Nick pieced this all together in his head, passively listening as Judy and the wolf spoke. So the wolf was innocent, or so she said. Could it have been her old pack that attacked the rabbits? There were no signs of any rabbits. How could she know so little of she lived so close? He nudged against Judy's arm as if to encourage further inquiry.

"This is all you know? All you saw? Have you cause to lie, wolf? For you fear my stone and my sling? You fear my fox?"

The wolf sighed. She nosed at her cub. "Go cave. Home. I return soon." She ordered. The cub seemed to understand, because it got up and began to toddle off toward the cave in the distance, where Nick and Judy could spy the pointed tips of four little ears peeking out from over a pile of rocks in front.

"I fear _you_." The wolf said. "You are kind rabbit. Not all rabbits so kind. My pack eat on bugs, and berry, and small small mammal. Never rabbit. Yet rabbit come deep into forest and from all sides they attack. All rabbit knows is war. All rabbit even you. But you know war… and you know peace…"

Judy tried to make sense of the statement, not for the different in their vocabulary, but in the impossibility of what the wolf was telling her. How could rabbits wage war? Her Hopps Clan lived a life of farming and defense, little else. And these wolves, these wolves who were gentler than most, they were attacked? How could such a thing happen? Judy wasn't sure if she could believe this.

"Your words are known, and only maybe believed. Tell me once more wolf, and I will go. What of the black village? Do you know more?"

The wolf rested her head down between her paws. Her ears went flat, and she whined. It was the whine of fear, the same as when she had been struck and when Judy had been poised to kill her.

"Black village… is cause of Whiteflock."

Judy felt her jaw drop, she tried to concentrate. Sheep?

"Whiteflock come one day, with fire. They come with spear. I lay low in the grass… And see the smoke, hear the fight, know the blood, smell the blood. When all is passed, I go to village, I go, brave, to see. No wolf claws those marks. Those marks from spears. Whiteflock spears, sharp as fang.

"Judy! Judy Hopps!" A sudden voice rang out before Judy and Nick had the opportunity to digest the wolf's story. Jolted into fear, the wolf raised to her paws and began to growl in the direction of the noise.

Was it an attack? The rest of the wolf's pack coming to kill her and Nick in an ambush? Judy didn't know what to think. She was on the verge of panic, and raised her sling again.

A young bunny came running through the tall grass, his vest bobbing and flapping as he ran. "Judy!" He called, waving his arms. He stopped meters away and rested his paws on his knees, gasping for air.

"Peter! Peter why are you here?" Judy demanded, looking between the wolf and her brother. Nick stayed close to Judy, his fur bristling in anticipation of a fight between the wolf and his family. His fight response began to overtake him.

But Judy's paw fell onto his neck and stroke slowly, calmingly.

"Father is ill. He grows ill. The Clan prepares to move, and will soon. Before you get back. I was sent ahead to tell you this." Peter said between gasps. He blinked as he noticed the wolf, like it had suddenly appeared there, then instantly fell back onto his bottom.

"W-wolf!" He shouted, and shielded himself with his arms.

The wolf tilted her head quizzically, her lips lowering from their teeth-showing scowl, and sat on her haunches as Nick had been before.

Judy couldn't help but laugh, but she fought the urge to do so loudly. Peter's news was grave indeed.

"You came alone, so far… I'm proud of you, Peter. On the way home I will teach you to pick the perfect sling stone."

Peter nodded, tail shivering as he pushed himself backwards with his legs to put a few more inches between him and the wolf.

"Blue eyes…" He whispered, "Blue like Bonnie…"

The wolf looked away. She turned, and her tail swished.

"Wait!" Judy pleaded, and the wolf paused.

"The Whiteflock. Is it near?"

"Maybe. Too far to smell. Maybe north."

Judy nodded, and thought. A flock of sheep had traveled so far to seek out and raze a village of rabbits? Sheep had used spears to emulate the claws of wolves?

The Hopps Clan did not have relations with sheep. Judy knew sheep to be herbivores, like her, and little else.

A pit seemed to fill her stomach. How could a sheep conjure up a greater dread in her than wolves?


	5. Chapter 5

"What do you mean harmless? Judy, that was a real lone wolf! I can't believe it spoke!" Peter was darting along ahead of Judy and Nick as he continued to talk. He had barely ceased talking since the three of them had parted ways with the wolf. He bounced off trees with sturdy trucks and ran circles in the knee-high grass.

Nick smirked as the young buck rabbit displayed his alarming abundance of energy.

"You're half Judy's age, and twice as quick." Nick observed, glancing between Judy and her brother and weighing the similarities with the differences.

Judy wasn't so jovial. She hung her ears and trudged more than walked.

"Judy?" Peter asked, "Your ears hang. Will you not answer? How can such a vast creature be harmless? A wolf!"

"I mean she was… She was a good wolf. Sometimes, maybe, a lone wolf is a monster… But sometimes, it is a mother. Understand, Peter?" Judy tried her best to sound mature and confident, but given what had transpired she was more worried than anything else.

"If I tell that to father and to the others, they'll laugh at me." Peter retorted, voice lilting as if beginning an immature taunt.

Judy looked up, and Nick arched and eyebrow at Peter, who looked away guiltily.

Peter reconsidered his words. "But… if I tell them Judy said it, I think they'll listen."

Judy was shocked by the sudden display of maturity from the same Peter Hopps who once tried to uproot a tree for "surely the apples which grew on the branches below were far sweeter." She slowed her pace and rotated her paw in the air as if to move her thoughts along.

"Peter… Do you know why father knew of the Meadowlands? Why didn't he send us anywhere other than north? Why did we not set out for it sooner if he knew?"

Peter stopped, and Nick stopped as he did. Nick sat on his haunches and Peter slowly wandered back to where Judy was, several paces behind him. He stood near Nick and absently played with the fox's ears.

Perhaps he wasn't so mature after all. Though Judy had to admit she often did the same when no one else was around.

"I never asked. You know father and the elders. They have always had all kinds of old knowledge. Packs, right? No… Pacts. Yeah, pacts! It must have been a pact."

"Yeah? With who?" Nick interrupted, his eyes meeting Judy's in silent confirmation.

Peter thought for a moment before answering, "Whoever lives in the Meadowlands. Maybe, I don't remember."

"We have not done much trading with other rabbit clans for the past few years… And we never come across many other mammals. We live on Hopps ancestral land and that is it. But now with the soil's strength failing…" Judy's words came slowly as she worked through the possibilities. As for answers, she came up short. "Peter. You can report back to father. We need more time. Try to buy more time. Nick and I need to know something. We need to find something."

Peter frowned, but nodded. He knew better than to disagree with his older sister. He gave Nick a pat on the back. Nick returned the gesture by bumping his head lightly against Peter's side.

Judy opened her arms, and Peter came. She pressed her paw between his ears.

"You are growing into a good scout. As good as me, soon." Judy reassured, smiling for the first time in hours.

"As good as you, maybe." Peter said, slowly breaking from the hug. "But never as good as you and Nick." He shot Nick a knowing glance, then began to trot off southward.

Nick and Judy watched him go, and when he turned to wave back, so did they.

Soon they were alone again.

"I hope the boy has enough wit to get your father to listen." Nick mumbled, moving toward Judy. "What are we going to do?"

"The Whiteflock. We need to know where they are. If the Hopps Clan is moving into lands full of… wolves, and enemies, we need to know as soon as possible who is friend and who is foe."

Out of the corner of her eye, Judy saw Nick nod. She felt him move around behind her and put his paws on her shoulders. He rested his muzzle between her ears. She felt the warmth of his body in proximity, fur against fur.

"I see how this worries you. Judy, I may be a fox, but I've been in Clan Hopps longer than you have. I know our strength. We can get through this."

Nick spoke softly, and the rumble of his tones of Judy's ears were comforting and calming. She reached up and put one of her paws on his. She hoped he was telling her the truth.

"Thank you. Now, we need to do this, Nick. Come on. We are scouts for a reason."

The two took off northward, retreading steps they had walked with Peter. Hopefully Peter would be able to hold off the clan's migration for just another day or two. Judy was positive that it would add another day to their time away from home just to investigate the Whiteflock, but nothing was more important.

The sun was already beginning to set far in the west, and the shadow of the mountains where they had met the wolf darkened the viridian fields of wild grass. Judy and Nick didn't need to discuss Nick taking point, leading the way with his night vision once more. Both kept their ears down, pressing forward through the vegetation.

Hours passed with no sight or sound of civilized mammals. Night had fallen by the time Nick and Judy reached unexplored territory in the north. There was a chill in the air; a wind blowing from the sea to the east.

"I don't think we're going to find the Whiteflock today." Nick lamented, his paws beginning to tire. "It grows dark. We should think of shelter soon."

Judy pressed forward, peeking through a patch of bushes. "Nick, we can't rest. Time is our enemy. We need to know what is up ahead."

Nick paused behind her, running his paws down over his ears. He swished his tail and sighed.

"Press on all you want, but if you're tired, and weak… That is when they will strike."

"Nick, you make them sound like predators. They are prey, like us."

"Say what you want… I know sheep are no friend of rabbits. We barely get along with other rabbit clans who seek their bleak trade, and only when you hide me and cover me in flowers to mask my scent."

"Bleak trade? What are you talking about? We have each other, Nick. All of us in Clan Hopps. Do not worry."

"And you think that it will all last forever? That one day, you won't be traded for ten rabbits' worth of carrots to another clan in a peaceable offering?"

Judy pulled her head back out of the bushes and turned to Nick, her eyes wide with astonishment at the callousness of his words and tone.

"That's… That's not…"

"Don't worry, Judy. I will go back to being a workfox when that time comes. For no rabbits but Clan Hopps would suffer a fox to live amongst them."

"Nick, stop. It is not like that."

Nick moved away from her as she reached out to touch his fur. He stood on his hind legs briefly and glared, arching his back at her.

"You lie to say it isn't! How can you know? You are a rabbit; I am a fox. One day you will part from me and I will never see you again and… and I'm not ready for that."

"Nick, wait! I-"

Nick didn't wait. His face twisted in grief and he bounded into the tall grass around them, rustling and bolting through it and leaving Judy standing beside the bush.

"Nick! Nick, I won't leave you! Don't leave _me!_ " Judy cried, jogging through the grass and jumping to try and spot where Nick had run. But the night was dark, so very dark. A bunny's eyes could not compete with a fox's in the dead of night. All she could do was raise her ears and lift her nose to the air. Gently she sniffed, moving ahead and tracking what she could of Nick's scent where his fur had rubbed on the grass. Her ears stood on end, trying to catch one shuffle or one paw cracking a twig.

Judy heard nothing.

Judy tapped her foot in frustration, grinding her teeth. In that moment, she was overcome with how vulnerable she felt without Nick. Though they had parted ways before to scout a wider radius, never had they parted due to an argument. The feeling that he might not be coming back welled up inside her and she fought tears. The stiff chill of the westward wind seemed to castigate her, though she knew not what she had done wrong.

Was it the idea, the unspoken truth, that she might one day be traded in boon to another clan? The custom was one she often tried to forget. Only when other siblings left and the Trading Parties were thrown was she reminded of it. Or, on the rare occasion that another clan of rabbits had does to offer, and a new Hopps-by-marriage emerged in the exchange of woven baskets, crops, or seeds.

Judy did not like this custom. At least, she did not like the idea that she might be subjected to it, no matter the enormous worth of the dowry she would no doubt command. And she did love the does who became Hopps-by-marriage like any other sister.

To leave Clan Hopps for another, chosen by her father and not her… To love a rabbit?

Judy wasn't sure she could love a rabbit, for she knew she already loved a fox.

"Nick!" Judy's voice rang with renewed desperation. She bounded through the grass in the direction he left, desperate to find some sign of him. Blades of grass whipped at her exposed fur and the wind seemed to howl around her ears. For a moment she was sure the wind was the howling of a wolf, but she pressed on heedless of danger and of practiced caution. She would find her Nick.

Judy raced through unfamiliar land as she never would have done before. Her breath shook and her heart began to beat in her ears as she pushed through bushes and wild vines and emerged in a vast open field dotted by tall trees.

A sudden light exploded in front of her, halting her as abruptly as if it were a wall.

There in the distance a figure held a torch aloft; a burning rod with a thick mass of combusting pitch at the end like the flaming limb of a demon.

Judy sank to the ground, lowering her ears and hiding from the light as the figure ahead worked.

It held the torch in one arm, and dropped flat stones with the other. Every ten yards or so it would stop and drop a stone as if marking territory.

The marking of clan grounds with flat stones scratched with a clan seal was a custom of every rabbit clan Judy could think of, including her own.

But this figure was not a rabbit. This figure was thick, and puffy, like a land-borne cloud. Judy knew it to be a sheep. Its white wool looked foreign, and Judy wasn't sure how much body mass it covered up. She had never seen a sheep before. She had not heard they were dangerous, save for Nick's fretting earlier. Perhaps she could make contact with the sheep if he spoke the common tongue. Perhaps… Perhaps he had seen Nick.

"Hail! Peacegreet!" Judy called, jumping up from her position in the grass. She moved out from her hiding place, walking forward tentatively to avoid frightening the other prey.

The sheep raised its head, dropping another stone in surprise. It stared at Judy for a long moment, and Judy could see the bizarre, hourglass shape of its pupils, illuminated by the light of the torch it held. Straps held fabric or skins wrapped around its woolen body, puffs of cloudy wool bursting out of the openings. The blazing torch shone on long, glinting metal tied to the sheep's waist.

Was he of the Whiteflock?

Before Judy could communicate further, the sheep shouted a rippling 'baa' call, loud and piercing in the silence of the night around them. Two further shapes appeared from behind rocks and trees – more sheep, though only silhouettes.

"Clan Hopps!" Judy called. "Peaceful clan, I bring no harm; may we speak?"

The sheep nodded, but to his compatriots instead of to Judy. He held the torch aloft, and the other two drew long, crude blades from their belts. They stalked toward Judy, calling low baas under their breaths and moving to flank her.

Judy instinctively jumped backward, and pawed at her belt to retrieve her sling. Shakily, in the oppressive darkness, she fumbled to load a rock into it.

But the sheep were already upon her, mere paces from her.

Too close.

There was a curdling baa of agitation, and the torch whipped and spun in the air. As it did, Judy and the sheep, who both turned to look, saw a shape with long ears and thick, fluffy tail plunge onto the sheep who had been carrying the torch. The other two sheep ran to investigate, and Judy followed.

"Nick?!" Judy called in confusion, gasping in disbelief. She was about to see her friend, her _love_ dispatched in cruel revenge before her.

The unknown mammal was looming atop the fallen sheep. The torch had hit the ground and rolled, igniting nearby grass.

And red wool.

The mammal raised its head, showing white teeth dripping with blood and drool. Its great grey-brown body seemed to Judy like a boulder, save for how it heaved and growled.

"Rabbit!" The wolf roared, his voice deep and booming with command. "Get hence!" And then the wolf rose on its hind legs, towering over even the sheep, who were twice Judy's height.

Judy fell backwards in alarm. As the two sheep raised their weapons and attacked the wolf, three more wolves appeared at the edge of the firelight. Their eyes and teeth sparkled in the growing flames that licked the sky like lupine tongues. Coordinated, confident, they leapt upon the sheep, and Judy was sure she was next.

And she was.

Still on the ground, still prone and muddled by her shock, Judy felt clawed paws, then teeth pulling at the back of her neck.

The thoughts she was sure were her last turned to Nick.


	6. Chapter 6

"Judy, come sit with me here by the fire."

Stu patted the flat rock on which he sat, gazing at his daughter.

Judy stood from her place sitting in the grass and came to sit by her father. As she did, he retrieved a sling from a strap of bark around his torso. He rotated in his paws.

"This was my father's. I remember how he made it, twisting bark around and around until it was strong." He rubbed his paws over the twisted rope and the padded bark handles. It was well used, but the rope was still sturdy. "Do you know why you have been learning to carve bullets but why you hold no sling of your own? Because I have always wanted to pass my father's sling to you as he passed it to me."

Judy's tail twitched and she leaned close to her father, examining the sling she had seen him carry for so long. Once, when a group of badgers had drawn near the farmland, she saw her father calmly strike their leader from three hundred footpaces in one shot. To her, the sling was a legendary object, and she was never sure whether it was the sling itself or her father's skill that had made the blow.

"Father, I… This is a great honor. But why do you grant it to me? Why not one of your many sons? Jason? Eric?" They were the names of her older brothers, each stronger and faster than her.

Stu smiled and held one paw out, rotating the sling around it deliberately to gather it into a handful. The fire flickered lazily, shadows cast all about. His other sons and daughters had already retired for the night.

"You may not yet know it, but you are boldest of the Hopps. Though you are still young, and still supervised, you have proven a capable scout. There is little that can evade the detection of you and your fox. You will need this sling when you go further from Hopps land. It will protect you as if I were there. Do you understand?"

Judy nodded obediently, trying to hide her excitement. She was accustomed to a sling – she often used one for training, but this was no mere sling. Instilled within it was every form of protection beyond the physical that could be given.

She was happy to receive the sling, but she was also well aware of what it meant. Soon, she would be away from the safety of Hopps land. Soon, she would be out on her own for days or weeks at a time.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Judy."

Nick's voice was in her ear as the wind whipped past them. Judy could scarcely understand what was happening; only the rush of wind and the snap of grass and plants on her fur made any sense. She felt faint, felt scared, but she wasn't ready to give up. Not on her life, and not on Nick.

"Understand me; I meant no ill." Nick was panting and gasping. He held onto Judy for dear life, his paws clutched around her. He could still taste her fur in his mouth where he had pulled her up into her arms by the scruff of her neck. "Frustration and fear only. I see that losing you to a rabbit is better than losing you to anything else."

Judy grunted and writhed in his grip. "Nick, slow down! We are safe now!" She pleaded, but Nick continued on. He ran until he couldn't anymore. He was short of breath, starving for air, and he set Judy down beside a tree where he lay on top of her to protect her from harm.

"Oh, Nick." Judy sobbed, wrapping her arms around his neck and rubbing her face into his fur. His smell was potent but so familiar as to be comforting. She stroked his heaving back as he regained his breath. "Nick, I will not go. I will not be sent from you." Her words came with tears and she hoped their import would reach her fox.

Nick panted, sighed and rubbed his nose against her cheek. "Let us be as we are. I know clan tradition. But I also know you. They must understand, having coupled us like this."

"W-we are… We are a couple? Two, though we act as one? Nick, save your sweet words for when I am not so scared." A muffled chuckle indicated her slow relaxation. Still, in the back of her mind, the horrifying visage of the great snarling beast remained, and so too did its words.

"What were those mammals, Nick, did you see them? Hear them? Were they Whiteflock?"

Nick's voice lowered and he whispered out of concern for their safety. "Must be. What else? They were strange and fearsome. But… but the wolves. Did they hurt you?"

Judy shook her head; Nick could feel it. "No. I can't make sense of it."

Nick's ears stood up as Judy spoke, and he clapped a paw over her mouth. A rustling rose up from beyond their view. The moon lit very little.

"Peacegreet, as so you say." A voice quaked Judy's senses; such a warning would normally lower her alarm, but she felt no safer for having heard it.

Gradually and with heavy, audible steps, the blood soaked-face of a wolf appeared out of the darkness. The moon cast its muzzle in silver and the blood dripping from his fangs shone like syrup in the darkness. Even on all fours, it had a great presence over Nick and Judy, cowering against the tree as they were. It bowed its muzzle and sat on its haunches.

"Wolf? What do you want?" Nick kept his snarling at bay, but an edge of umbrage remained in his voice.

The wolf chuckled. It was an odd noise; not one either Nick or Judy had ever heard before.

"Do not speak so. I have saved you – I deserve respect. Know you not of honor?" As the wolf spoke, he licked the blood from his teeth. Sheep's blood. He seemed to be alone, with no pack near that Nick and Judy could smell or hear. His voice was that of the wolf from moments before.

"Go on, Wolf. Speak as need be." Judy replied, sitting up. A mix of terror and awe made her voice shake. Nick kept his body across hers. His claws dug into the grass beside her, and she could feel his whole body tense, preparing for sudden movement or some drastic action.

"Call me wolf at will, but know my name be Managarm. My pack am peaceable. You know of Skadi? My Skadi. Was she sent me here to find you. She know'th danger like no other."

"Skadi? The wolf? White wolf? Then of that pack, you are… Alpha."

Again the great wolf chuckled. "Even rabbit daughters know'th such words."

Judy squinted, her eyes adjusting. She took time to observe the wolf as he sat there. His triangular ears stuck up in the shadows like tree tops against the night sky and his paws seemed the size of Judy's head. His jaws looked as if they could snap her up in two bites. That he smiled so did little to alleviate her primal fears; such a smile showed bloodied teeth, long as daggers.

"You say… Skadi. She sent you here? With your pack? But she said-"

"She was wrong. I decide what do my fellows. I and the promise."

Nick's nose scrunched up. "What promise?"

Managarm calmly crossed his paws over themselves before him. "You be Seeker of Clan Hopps. You should be prepared for death… Though no mammal welcomes it. We of my pack are sworn to harm no Hopps. Fancy then that we find you in threat of Whiteflock, for no blood do we spill more merrily than the blood of they."

Judy's mind reeled. She clutched Nick's fur and felt his scruff raise up again, sensing his impotent anger.

"A promise? A pact… With who did you swear this pact, wolf? No wolf has come near Hopps land without a fight." In truth, no wolf had come near Hopps land in a long, long time.

At this, Managarm raised his eyebrows and inclined his muzzle closer to Judy. She could see his nose twitching and hear his sniffing. He uncrossed his paws to gesture, slowly sweeping one paw to the side.

"Ask your father, young Hopps. Stu of Hopps honor'th the primacy of wolf. I respect him much."

Nick drew away from Judy, but refused to sit anywhere other than between her and the wolf. He sat in front of her, closer to the wolf, and folded his arms. His legs were crossed beneath him, and he locked his eyes on the wolf. After a few moments of this glaring, he sighed and nodded.

"I cannot trust you with ease, but though you can you have yet to kill us."

Judy moved to stand behind Nick, her paws on his shoulders. "Nick, you… Trust? You ought to trust for you, not just for me. I trust this wolf. This predator. I trust too that he means us no harm."

Nick turned his head, green eyes glistening in the moonlight as he looked at Judy's warm expression. He wondered how she could be so kind. He knew many rabbits still flinched at his presence, still talked of him when they thought he was not listening. Even though he was as Hopps as them, few treated him as Judy did. He saw her now, so open to this vast, terrifying predator, so trusting, and his heart ached with his affection for her benevolence.

"You are hope for kind predators like me, Judy." Nick gazed for a moment more before returning his attention to the wolf.

"Pack have'th no cause for hope." Managarm rumbled. "We live, we die. We build dens of stone and nature claims them. We educate our cubs and lose them to famine. Few now wish'th to consume the flesh of prey."

Judy squinted in the darkness. She felt a twinge of painful guilt in her stomach. Had she – had all Hopps – misjudged wolves? At least, these wolves? But then she remembered…

"You say this, but your Skadi has gathered mice as food." Mice were not traders with the Hopps Clan, but they were known and they were peaceful mammals.

Managarm sighed profoundly. He hung his head low and averted his amber eyes. "My Skadi. Too long separated… She starv'th in the plains, 'lone, to feed her cub-brood. My cubs. My fault. All my fault… She be loath to kill'th prey more than any wolf."

"Then how did you speak to her?" Judy asked, eyes wide.

"You smell the ash on the wind? Whiteflock burn and kill, predator and prey. There be much more blood need'th spilling. Came 'cross Skadi scent as we journey from westward to Whiteflock place. Pack and I. Frija is angry, but she will com'th to understand. Skadi say'th much of here rabbit and fox."

Nick's lips raised to show his teeth, but Managarm did not react.

"You want to kill them?"

"As they want'th to kill us. And you. Saw you not? Bayed they for your blood an instant they saw you."

Judy clenched her fists. She didn't want to believe so easily that their differences were intractable. If they could all just talk, just as they were talking with the wolf... Why did blood need to be spilled when the earth provided such bounty for Clan Hopps?

"Now I ask a question of you, fox and rabbit, you Hopps two. What do you here? Why be here and not the land of Hopps? What seek you?"

As a breeze found them in the clearing, Judy sniffed the air and smelled the fur of other wolves. She shuddered, but her mind did not immediately turn to fear – only her body.

Nick nudged her to let her know he was there, that he had smelled it, too.

"We… Seek to tend new land. Hopps land is soon to be barren. Father made the decision. Is it not safe, this land? To tame and tend? We… Could benefit… We could-"

"You could terrorize as Whiteflock do, rabbit?"

A stern female voice set Nick and Judy's ears standing. Out of the tall bushes adjacent to Managarm, a large, greyish wolf revealed herself, a sneer of disapproval on her muzzle. She smelled of roots and ashberries. Every feature of hers was like that of Managarm, but in her eyes burned embers of malice.

"Frija, this is Hopps rabbit. She receiv'th the pact as all Hopps. Speak no ill to her without due thought."

"Pact means little to the spear and the sling. This rabbit might raise them."

Nick shook his head in protest. "You misunderstand. We are peaceful, we only defend. Never have we killed a wolf in offense, or any other creature. Judy and I – Clan Hopps – we only want to live. Will you wolves, who too want only to live, do us harm? Will you eat us as food?"

Judy had difficulty concealing her emotions. She wanted to scream, to cry out. To force everyone to somehow agree to live safely despite all this simmering animosity. But it seemed that even with the pact, there were those wolves who still had reservations about a coexistence. It was agonizing that Judy had to acknowledge there would be many rabbits of her clan who would feel the same reservations about wolves.

Frija stepped forward and bared her teeth. "I have no love for rabbit. I eat not rabbit for the pact. That be all." She paced around Managarm and back, shaking her head and licking at her lips in annoyance.

Nick growled, but pulled himself back to his feet and wrapped an arm around Judy. She was glad. He had control of himself more often than she. Save for when she hurt him, he seemed to lose all wisdom and judgment.

"We will go now. Know this." Judy's words were firmer now, despite all the helplessness of her recent past. "The Hopps Clan is coming to the Meadowlands. We will tend and farm this land, and when we do, we will strive toward peace with you… and the Whiteflock. Nick, come."

Judy pointed down, and Nick lowered himself on all fours. For the first time in a long while, she climbed atop his back, straddling him right behind his arms. She had to display her power here; her confidence, or what was left of it.

"If you claim to know fear-" Managarm called, slowly rising to his feet. "-you will find it anew in the Whiteflock. Be unscathed, Hopps."

Nick and Judy walked southward, judging by the stars. Again they broke the adage. Once the wolves were out of sight, Judy lowered herself, crossing her arms on Nick's back and laying her head upon them. Nick's powerful vision guided the way, and Judy had a moment to truly rest after the altercation with the Whiteflock. The near death. The roaring snarls of wolves and the tear of flesh.

Never had she been so close to death.

"Judy. I must ask."

"Yes, Nick?"

"There is much to tell your father and the clan." Nick chose his words carefully, as he was still working through his thoughts while he spoke them. "I know that we must tell them of the Whiteflock and the wolves, but… Do we need to tell them of us? Are we able?"

Judy rested her chin on the back of Nick's neck and gazed up at the stars as he carried her back toward Hopps land. There was great beauty in the stars; the gatherings of bright stars into patterns and the haze of dim stars behind them. As she gazed, she found two stars, neither shining too brightly, but close together.

"We will tell them what they need to know first, Nick. And then we will decide… We will decide what else we can tell them. I fear reprisal. I fear misunderstanding and judgment. I do no fear love."

Judy knew it was not a perfect answer. That it might only continue to perturb Nick. But she loved him so that she could not bear to give him false hope.

Nick stopped and felt himself smile. He too looked up at the stars, and saw two beautiful dots of light as close to each other as Judy was to him. He wondered if she had seen them too.


	7. Chapter 7

The sun peeked over distant hills and treetops as dawn broke. Above even it, the skies swirled a mixture of night's purple and the day's orange. Judy sat with Nick curled around her, shrouded by bushes of lavender the color of half the sky. They always took cover near flowering shrubs to mask their mammal scents. Judy stroked Nick's back to gently urge him awake – he was always a deep sleeper, and a late one at that.

Two days of travel had brought them close to home, though they each knew it would soon be home no longer. For all they knew, the land had already been abandoned. It made Judy's heart hurt somewhere deep down; that she would have to learn a new home, and say goodbye to all she knew as a young rabbit. Her mother's grove. The huts, the fields. The river just a few miles away where she and Nick would swim and play when they were supposed to be keeping a lookout.

"Judy?" Nick's voice was meek and croaking with the remnants of his slumber. He slowly stirred and rubbed his eyes, rolling over onto his back before sitting up and coming face to face with Judy.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Judy replied gently, pressing her soft pink nose against Nick's black one and holding the touch.

Nick groaned and yawned, stretching his arms above his head and breaking away from Judy's nose press. He opened one eye as she laughed and gathered up her things, sliding out from under him and standing up.

"Judy, why didn't you wake me up? I thought we were supposed to hurry."

Judy shrugged. She adjusted the bits of bark clothing and checked her sling to confirm it was still there.

"Hmmm. I'm beginning to envy your clothes, Judy. Why must a fox always be bare save for his fur?"

"Well… That's something we can bring up with father. I can't help but picture you in a solstice celebration garb. All those carrot fronds bobbing around – you'd look as green as… your eyes."

Nick smirked and folded his arms. "I'll pass on that."

"Very well, Nick. Now, up; we're not far from Hopps land."

"I know. That's why I'm taking my time. Judy. I really… I've learned much on this journey. My mind has learned as much as my heart. I want to look on you for just a few moments longer before…"

Judy turned around from where she was standing with her back to Nick, surveying the surroundings. Her expression melted and she took a few steps toward him.

"Don't worry, Nick." Judy reached down and took up Nick's paws in hers. "We will be together. You are my fox, and I am…" Her words failed her. She couldn't make promises she wasn't sure could be kept. As impulsive as she was, breaking Nick's heart was impossible for her to do willingly. If only her family would understand Nick as well as she did, and how important he was to her – that he was more than a thing, or a pet, or a tool.

"Come now, Nick." Judy pulled Nick in the direction they had been walking. He stumbled after her, chuckling under his breath.

"Now we move? Maybe I can sleep late again next time."

The weather was good for travel. The air was cool and the sun not too overbearing. The forests and plains were quiet. Clear skies boded well, even if Stu's sickness weighed on the traveling pair.

Illnesses happened fairly often in the Hopps Clan, and most Hopps of age knew how to treat common illnesses. Coughing and dripping was the most frequent illness, but the occasional fire of body had taken one or two bunnies in Judy's time. Each was brought on by spirits and weather formations. Her father was of hardy stock, but illness was serious no matter the Hopps who suffered it. Judy only wondered what her father had done to suffer such ill fate on the eve of the relocation.

The grass was cool underpaw, and the subtle trails between the oak trees were familiar. Not so familiar was the enormous crowd pushing through the trees like water around the rocks in a river. Hundreds of ears pointed upward along the vertical bodies of the trees, and Nick and Judy knew them to be the Hopps Clan. All of them, or at least as many of them as could carry the enormous bags and vessels, doubtless full of crops and supplies, on their backs.

Nick and Judy stopped in their tracks, doubting what their eyes were showing them. Judy caught her breath and, still holding one of Nick's paws in hers, waved her other arm frantically.

"Hopps Clan! Know me as Judy!"

The attention of all those rabbits, all those eyes and ears, were suddenly on the two of them. Younger siblings, too young to carry anything, broke away from the tight ranks. Peter was there, back hunched from the sack of lettuce over his shoulder. As the young rabbits neared, Nick and Judy both bent down to catch one or two of them and begin carrying them back to the group. The raised voices of the young ones, eager to hug their older sister and her fox, nearly drowned out that of one of Judy's older brothers as he hailed her.

"Judy. You are well, and safe, I thank the crops and carrots for that." Clement was tall for a rabbit, and in his youth it had made him awkward and gangly. Now he was among the strongest of the Hopps and Judy, as the others, respected him for that.

Judy handed off her younger siblings to him, and smiled proudly. "I am no worse for the wear of all my travel. But how can it be that I encounter you first? Have you not sent forward scouts, Clem?"

Clement shook his head. "No. We rely on your stories of this land and its temperament. So far it has served us well. You must see father; he wishes to speak to you." With Clement's words came the turn of his head toward the back of the crowd where the figure of Stu could be seen. He was lying on a cot carried by two of Judy's brothers as Bonnie offered him sips of water.

Judy thanked Clement and moved through the crowd as they all waved to her and greeted her. At the head of the group behind her, Clement called for a rest.

"Judy?" Stu called as she approached, his voice croaking. Whatever it was, he was deep in its grip.

"Father!" Judy called out, rushing to his side. As she did she paid no heed to Nick, who remained within earshot out of concern but did not show himself. "What is this illness? Peter told me of it. You are to recover soon?"

Bonnie placed her paw on Judy's shoulder. "Judy, do not rush him so. A sickness of days and nothing more. Not of weeks, nor more."

Stu nodded, his eyes ringed with light red but his smile hardy. "Of all my sons and daughters do you fret the most, Judy. Sit with me now in our rest and tell me of your scouting before I again sleep." As he spoke, the other rabbits set his cot down.

Judy's eyes grew hard. Her mind spun into a tangled mass of desperate thoughts, of questions unanswered, of hypocrisies and lies and truths. Then her face softened and she kneeled beside him, her fingers playing with the blades of grass there.

"Father, I…" Above them the branches of the oaks shifted and the sunlight sparkled like stars through the leaves. Quietude surrounded them there, while a storm of conflict raged in Judy's mind. Sick or not, she had to tell him the truth, to confront him in whatever small way she could. She thought of the wolves and she thought of Nick, and she said, "I have seen the Whiteflock. I have seen the Pack of wolves who know you. I know their names."

Judy saw her father stiffen, and Bonnie looked between them both. Slowly, Stu reached up to wave Bonnie and the other rabbits away to create distance. Bonnie moved away and sat with Nick curled around her lap, his body relaxed but his ears raised in interest and concern.

"You become wiser and more worldly each time I see you, Judith." He coughed and forced a smile, but Judy knew it as the nervous smile of a man who found his secrets laid bare before him. She could not help but take pity on her father for all he did: for his illness and for his follies.

"I do so for you and Clan Hopps, father. But now you must tell me why these wolves knew of you. Why they did not attack? Why they spoke of a pact with you to hurt no rabbit? Do you know the name Managarm?"

Stu sighed and lifted his head. He sat up on his elbows and looked beyond Judy to where his wife sat with Nick. There was a moment of something, a consideration, a weighing of options or of choices made – it was obvious in his thoughtful stare.

"You were young. Too young to remember, I think." Stu began to speak slowly, closing his eyes to relive the memories. "Bonnie's father was killed by a lone wolf, not an unknown predator. The Hopps of the time – most all gone off in trades with other clans now – wanted war. I had become leader of the clan, and I slept no nights while Hopps rabbits desired revenge against the wolves. So… like you, Judy, scout, I left under night's cover. I left alone to meet the wolves."

Judy knelt next to Stu as he spoke. She took up the vessel of water her mother had set down and helped her father drink. Her mind raced with pity and thoughts of worry. Betrayal, even, that she was learning all this only now.

"Go on, father, if you see fit."

"I followed their howls. I found them in a clearing, the smoke of fire giving away their congress. There the wolf Managarm, their leader, castigated a wolf for the killing of a rabbit. Decried him for the spilling of unlawful blood. When they saw me, these wolves, they raised their hackles in defense, but Managarm spoke to me then. He and I made a pact that no Hopps rabbit would be harmed by a wolf of his pack. I later convinced the clan I had seen hundreds of fearsome wolves taller than the trees, and their worry quelled their need for battle and vengeance. Only Bonnie and our parents know of this."

A sudden recall leapt to the forefront of Judy's mind, the words of her parents and grandparents after she last returned home. Warnings of the danger of wolves – was it all so that this truth was not revealed? All to protect a pact decades old?

"And that is how you knew the Meadowlands?"

Stu nodded, "Then, it was wolf land. I trust they live there still, and that we must be ready for them."

Judy narrowed her eyes in vexation. "No, father, they do not, only on its fringes. There was a village of rabbits. Until… Until the Whiteflock. It is their land now."

Stu was ill, but at this he all but turned a fearful pallor of white. "Whiteflock? The Warring Whiteflock of far north, of legend, of forgotten fear? Judy. Look at me. Tell me you saw them. Tell me you know it to be true."

"I know it, father."

"And how many?"

"Few that I know, father, and those few dead and me alive thanks to wolves. Thanks to Managarm."

Nick heard every word and could sit in silence no longer. He drew away from Bonnie's lap with a lick of deference to her knee, and as she watched he crossed the distance toward Judy and Stu. All four of his paws crumpled the grass beneath him and he sat on his haunches as he arrived.

"You make pact with predators, but still I am not full Hopps?"

Stu grimaced. "You are one of us, Nicholas, no other's."

"But I am not all Hopps; not my species, not my blood. So then this rabbit I love is free to love me."

"Nick!" Judy gasped, one paw raised toward him, but she thought she oughtn't stir so loudly near her sick father.

Stu was quiet for a moment, then made for a drink of water, which Judy gave him.

"If you speak true, that the wolves are near enough to save you from the Whiteflock, then we will have time to settle ourselves and raise our homes before any threat reaches us from the north. Until then, all the other Hopps must believe our journey is a safe one thanks to the efforts of you and your fox."

"And what would you have me do then? Wait until we are settled in an unsafe valley? Wait until the Whiteflock wield their flashing metal against us?"

"We will not be unsafe." It was Bonnie's voice, soft and gentle as it had ever been. She stood beside Nick and he looked up to her, then Judy and Stu did too. "Judy, the wolves may yet protect us. If you trust them, you must go to them. Tell them our need."

"You too, mother? But they…"

"Like your father said. A lone wolf. A criminal. Not on behalf of every wolf who ever lived, just as Nick is not the shadow of every fox."

Nick shook his head. "They have disagreements, they killed Whiteflock. Not once did try to talk to them, to negotiate." He remembered the other lone wolf he and Judy had met that day, their first day in the Meadowlands. That lone wolf was a mother, not a criminal. Predators were a confusing lot.

Bonnie calmly set her paw on Nick's shoulder. She exchanged an understanding glance with Stu. "We have kept all Hopps fearful and quiet for too many years. If we are to live in these new lands, we will need the truth on our side. That is why your father trusts you with this truth. If you can convince the wolves to…"

Judy's eyes widened in realization. "You mean to feed them, don't you?" She looked between Stu and Bonnie. "You know as I do that they hunt no prey save for desperation, for famine? And with our farm we could… We could save them."

"Yes." Stu coughed and slowly reclined back off his elbows. "For loyalty and the pact I will feed these wolves as I feed my children and relatives. I will help you Judy, I will explain. Times are changing, and we can no more fear all predators than we can fear your fox."

Nick lowered his head, hiding his pained, tearful expression. He had never believed he would hear such words of approval. He never believed there would be a time when rabbits showed less fear of predators than he did.

"Then Nick and I will go and do our best to convince them, if we have your blessing."

Bonnie smiled and rubbed Nick's shoulders. "There, there. You rest little lately, but I know how you love to be out with Judy. You take care of her for me. And Judy, you take care of this fox of mine."

Judy took Nick's paw and stroke the back of it. "I will, mother." She hid her confusion at so much information, so much onus placed on her again. All she knew was that if she was with Nick, she could do anything.


	8. Chapter 8

"So many years of falsehoods; misdirection. What was it all for?" Judy kicked at stones as she found them lying in the grass. She and Nick were close to wolves; they could smell the marks of territory. The Meadowlands were beginning to feel familiar for all the times they had tread the same plains and woods.

Nick couldn't speak. He wanted to hear Judy puzzle it out, for he was not sure he knew the answer himself though he had his inklings.

"To… pit us against the outside? The others? The predators? Did father know he would stoke fear so like a blazing fire? I had nightmares about wolves as a kit, even though I knew you to be so like them. And yet, so unlike them…"

Nick was walking alongside Judy on all fours. The ground felt cold on his paws.

"I think we are all very alike." He muttered, a bitter wish that all could see it as he suddenly did. "We speak. We have families. We struggle. We know love. The only difference is that we… That they hunt, isn't it, Judy?"

Judy was not surprised Nick felt so strongly about all this. She knew it affected him and his relations with the clan for more than it affected her. She understood as much as she could, but there was a point where she was unable to understand more – because she was not a fox. That inability to fully understand Nick's place in the world as he saw it weighed heavily on her heart, and she knew she had to answer him.

"Not anymore. That old wolf said it himself. Even in my father's youth he witnessed them disapproving of hunting. Maybe these are good wolves, just as there are good foxes… But I can't know that all wolves will be good, nor all predators. All I can know for sure, Nick, is that you are the best."

With that, she ran a hand down his back as they walked. His fur was not bristling in dismay and she was happy for that.

Nick flicked his ears this way and that as they moved through high grass. "Thank you, Judy. I hope the best fox is worthy of some clothing. I never learned how to make it."

"Clothes… If they will help you feel more like one of us, like a bunny, then you more than deserve some clothes. Maybe once this is over we'll gather some bark and leaves and weave them nicely. Together."

With the sun setting behind them, they knew they were soon to meet the wolves. The scent was all around them, like a trail in the air that lead to them. At any other time, it would have been a warning. Now thanks to the familiarity of the scent as that of a particular and peaceful wolf, it served as a guide. It wasn't long before they came into a clearing at the mouth of a cave, and saw an empty fire pit surrounded by flat lengths of bark covered in soft, downy grass. All these beds were empty.

One by one, the snouts and then bodies of wolves pushed from the grass around the clearing. They were bickering amongst each other, snarling and rolling their eyes. It was a moment before they noticed the rabbit and her fox. When they did, they stared with unabated shock.

"A rabbit? Here? I thought we held pact…"

"A fox with her? A rabbit and fox. My ears know this pair."

"Silence. Enough." Managarm's voice brought the wolves' exclamations to a halt. His size parted the grass like a valley parted mountains. Beside his great form walked that of Frija and the wolf Nick and Judy met when they first stepped foot into the Meadowlands. Skadi; beside her three cubs found their way carefully through the grass and into the clearing. She exchanged a glance with Judy before herding her cubs to the mouth of the cave.

"Far westward come'th rabbit and fox. Was your father sent you?" Managarm asked, seating himself on his haunches and facing the pair.

Judy felt her back tingle, and she knew she had to hide any hint of ingrained fear. As much as she wanted to palm a stone and hold her sling, she knew to keep it at her waist.

"Yes. We need the help of wolves. We… can make an offer. We trust you. I trust you."

Hushed whispers tickled Nick's ears as Judy conversed with the wolf. He was eight or ten times her size, and she stood with her back straightened bravely. He knelt behind her to give her his support of presence.

"And what offer'th rabbits? Your father sought we stay'th parted for all time and in peace. What help have we to give?"

"Your teeth. Your claws. The Whiteflock plays at war, and we cannot settle the Meadowlands without them gone. We need wolves."

This brought a smile to Managarm's canid lips, black just as Nick's.

"For long we seek'th spill the blood of Whiteflock. But mistake us not. Not to eat. To punish."

Punish. The word seemed odd coming from a wolf. Judy herself had seen the destruction wrought by the Whiteflock, seen the disbelief and vexation in her father's eyes at the mere mention of their name, but everything she had been taught until now told her that wolves were wicked creatures.

Now it was the judgment of the predator that was cast against wicked prey.

"My father shared his blessing; now hear me. I am Judy Hopps of the Hopps Clan. I live with a fox. I have always lived so. I know him to be kind, and good. If you wolves are have divested yourselves of the pursuit of… of meat, then you will find the bounty of the earth when tilled by rabbit paws to be more than enough to sate you. I offer you a place at our side. With us, the Hopps Clan. I offer you break bread with us."

Pointed ears raised all around. The wolves were again surprised. The pack was not large, just twelve or so, but none of them seemed able to believe Judy's offer. For a long, silent moment, Managarm waited for their initial reactions to calm.

"We know'th not this bread to break. Such oath and offer am naught but words to us." He waved with a wide, dismissive paw gesture.

Judy licked her lips, which had gone dry talking to the wolf. She nodded.

"Bread is food. We make it from the earth. You will learn of bread and much more. And if you wish…" Judy moved her paws down to the bark and leaves wrapped around her waist to keep her decent. "You will learn of clothes, and you will wear them on your fur."

Managarm made a face.

"It is not so bad! You will see, with us. With me, Judy, and my… and Nick."

The wolf Frija paced from one side of Managarm to the other. She shook her head in disapproval.

"If you decide do this, I will ire. First you bring omega back, bad omega, and break tradition you once honored. Now you lay at the feet of rabbits. And if they seek'th to betray? To hurt?"

Managarm narrowed his eyes and turned his muzzle to Frija. "A hundred rabbits match one wolf. We am twelve. But with their flashing shards we fare with less favor 'gainst the Whiteflock." His teeth could be seen every time his mouth opened. He looked back to Judy. "Was you inspired me fetch my Skadi and cubs. Wolf tradition cares not for how wolves starve and suffer'th. I decide now trust the rabbit, whose father I trusted same. Sit now. Share our modest bounty. Tell I, Managarm, your thoughts."

Judy felt behind her for Nick's fur and together they approached the fire pit. She briefly looked down at it, wondering if the wolves had made it themselves. As she did, two other members of the pack dragged large leaves wrapped with bark, and unfurled them. Pawfuls of berries and wild vegetables lie within. Judy now knew the truth of their diet, and her guilt grew in her.

"There is little time to rest, but for now we will. I think, deep in the night, we should set out for the north. I don't want to punish them with death. Driving them away will be enough."

"Judy." Nick spoke up. "Think very carefully about what you're doing. This is just like… Look, this is not defense anymore. We moved. We're in their space now, and that means we're the ones doing the attacking. The Hopps Clan will be as prey turned predator."

Judy nodded. She rolled some berries between her fingers – they were delicately picked.

"Fox speak'th true. This am not the action of peace. Wolf and Whiteflock have much history. Not so much history with rabbits. These lands are not just ours, and it am all who want'th the plains of east. I decide to trust rabbits who work land up. Never sheep who burn land down."

The gathered wolves were all settled, eating their berries and keeping one ear on the conversation between Managarm, Nick, and Judy. Frija had turned away in protest, but her ears perked when Skadi walked out of the cave and approached the fire pit. Skadi was carrying kindling, and she set it down gently in the center before striking one rock with another.

"Cubs sleep sound." She said softly as the sharp click of rock made sparks jump into the kindling and begin to smoke.

Nick rose up from his spot next to Judy and began to blow gently on the kindling without a word shared between him and Skadi.

"Are you able to do all this?" Judy had closed her paw around the berries, and she gazed up resolutely into Managarm's orange-gold eyes. "Assist us? I do not want to pry into your pack unneeded. But if I am offering that you live with us in peace, then I have to know." Her eyes drifted between him and the two females. It was obvious to anyone.

Managarm shifted uncomfortably. "Pack's laws be decided once this trouble end'th. If rabbit can make peace with wolf, then wolf too can make peace with wolf. Our disagreement am fit to end soon. All am truly my fault in this." He braved a surreptitious sidelong glance at Frija.

"Your ways are different from ours, but our cultures may still get along. I thought you to be hunters, consumers of flesh… But you wolves, you lot consume the flesh of plants and trees, just as rabbits do. My father kept us afraid of wolves for a long, long time. We're afraid of all predators."

"Save one." Managarm rumbled, looking to Nick as the glow of new fire began to emanate from the pit. Nick and Skadi's efforts had paid off.

Judy paused. She turned her body in its sitting position and watched Nick as he gently stoked the flames and asked innocent questions of the mother wolf. She felt her face warm with a smile. He was doing his best here, as he did everywhere else. Nick wasn't just her fox anymore. He was his own fox, and he was far more than the tool other clan members sometimes treated him as.

What was it her father had said when Nick spoke of love? Nothing. The desperation of the times must have seemed more important. In her heart, Judy knew her mother would support her, but all of the Hopps Clan? She knew that even as her family, she often felt distant from her other siblings after long days and weeks scouting all year round. No one understood her like Nick.

"I recall an old wolf fable." Managarm spoke slowly, and yawned with wide, toothy jaws before continuing. "Of wind wolf and grass deer. Often them two would play'th. Whoosh and hum was the wolf, shift and swish the deer." Already it was growing dark, and the sky had begun shimmering. The great river of stars ran down to the horizon, splitting the sky into hemispheres. "This pair grow together and know'th one another. One day, wolf mother sky summon in wolf, and tell'th him of the ways of wind. He would ride'th high in currents and above the trees…"

Judy slowly began to notice that all the other wolves had quieted down and were listening to their leader with rapt attention. It was not unlike when her father told a story by the firelight as full stomachs gave way to full dreams. When she saw Nick curled by the fire, his tail tip twitching as if beckoning her, she moved closer and lay within the confines of his limbs and chest. The fire had warmed his body and fur just as when rabbits slept with hot rocks during the winter. She shared some berries with him.

Together, they listened to the story.

"Same day, deer father earth tell'th deer of grass ways. Stand tall. Give life. Green and grow be. Cover land and be underhoof and underpaw for all mammal." Skadi had moved to lay at the mouth of the cave with one ear poised to listen to errant sounds of her cubs within. Frija sat near Managarm, gazing deeply into the flames as they licked red and orange. "Next day, wolf and deer share'th truths. They must part to live as they are. But wolf and deer kindle feeling both. Know they pain to split so. In secret, a pact am formed. A pact to meet, to ever be together. Pact called as 'elska' but an old word am this. Rabbit and fox and young wolf know pact to be called as 'love.' To this day, wind run'th through the grass and make it sing. Grass wave'th at the wind to greet and know it."

Managarm smiled broadly. "If wind and grass can make'th first love of all, why not fox and rabbit? Why not wolf and rabbit? Why not all?" His eyes settled on Nick and Judy. The golden hues reminded Judy of her father's eyes – they even wrinkled like Stu's in the corners with such a smile.

Hours of warmth among the wolves passed. Nick and Judy both felt a sense of home, even surrounded by so many dangerous predators. They dozed with ears and eyes unworried, unobservant. For all the night they rested, and they heard beside them the soothing rhythmic breaths of the great beasts they once feared as hunters and killers.

When the moon's slender crescent was highest in the sky, a nudging muzzle roused Judy awake.

It was time to go north.


	9. Chapter 9

When rabbits scouted, they traveled in pairs, close together. Such was practice for longer than Judy had been alive. It was what she had been taught, and what she practiced with Nick each time she went on a journey. It was strange to her, then, that wolves traveled in such wide proximity to each other. Could it be their howling that ensured distance was merely physical, and did not extend to awareness? Judy pondered this as she walked alongside Nick and one of the pack's wolves. Managarm and the others they knew by name were spaced far to either side of them, creating a sort of fan. A wall of noses and ears that would detect any threat.

Nick wondered if Skadi would be alright alone at the cave with her cubs.

As Judy walked, she silently reached her paw into a pack at her waist that had been sealed ever since she left home. Without glancing down, she felt the shapes and centers of the objects within, placing her fingers against the holes to remind her that they were there. Something her father had given to her, along with her sling.

"Sky am dark with cloud. A storm swirl'th in above and have'th cause to come soon."

"If it hides our approach, it's better than a clear sky. Judy? What are you thinking about?" Nick looked quizzically to Judy.

"What do you know of the Whiteflock?" Judy asked, breaking into questioning abruptly. She was speaking to the wolf, whose right ear perked in her direction.

The wolf hesitated for a few moments before answering, "Sheep form herds. Sheep favor much their sharp rods, metal sticks. Sheep hunt, but not for food."

Nick's eyebrows knitted with curious confusion. "Then what is it they hunt for?"

The wolf was silent another long moment. His expression was distant, and perhaps that was his teeth grinding that Nick could hear.

"Pack's wisdom, passed down for generations, tells tale of bloodless mammals found near sheepland. We know not why – only we have imaginings."

Nick and Judy exchanged a worrisome glance and continued to trudge through the brush in silence.

It was a long journey, and twice each day the wolves would wordlessly find their ways back together where they would eat from the food they had brought and the food they found along the way. They did not light fires.

The first day of their departure, by the light of moon and stars, Judy knit together packs of leaves and grass. These were larger than hers, large enough to be slung over the backs of the wolves to carry the dried fruit, mushrooms, and wild vegetables. Even after all they had gone through, it surprised Judy that the wolves had such knowledge of edible plants.

On the night of the third day, Judy and Nick walked with Managarm, knowing they neared the Whiteflock lands.

Managarm spoke without looking away from the wilds ahead. "You still want war? You bring us wolves, and we want not peace with Whiteflock. You mean to help us kill?"

Judy's lips scrunched together as she thought. What did she want? A peaceful solution, ideally. Coexistence, so that she nor her clan would have to live in fear ever again. She wished the world would reflect her hopes, but she knew there was no way than what others mammals would choose freely, mingled with her own choices. She could not force the Whiteflock to understand her clan's need to live in the Meadowlands.

"I will do my best to negotiate. I will listen to them, at least. But I know how they attacked on sight. If they do so again, there is nothing I can do."

"Other than throw wolves at them until they go away?" Nick asked, a sharpness in his voice.

"Nick?"

"Is it because wolves are expendable? Where is the Hopps Clan in this? Why are we not with our clan, defending ourselves with them?"

"Because we have a chance to avoid a war like that. We have a chance to make peace, to understand each other. The wolves want what they want. Managarm, will you swear your pack will not attack until the Whiteflock does so first? When – if – they do?"

Managarm chortled under his breath. "You mind tongue but know truth. There am no if. Sheep attack'th always. But for your sake, for your peace, you have my oath. No wolf will leap'th into the fray save if sheep leap'th first."

Nick seemed appeased. Judy hoped he didn't see things as he spoke of them, because her intention was for the wolves to protect her during negotiation – not to come to harm. No mammal was expendable.

The grass they tread through was new, the landscape different from the southward Meadowlands. It was still broad, still flat, but in the distance stood strange objects Judy could not comprehend at her current distance. Only when they worked their way close could they see standing stones, piled atop themselves – two up, one across. Around and around the standing stones made a circle within which a firepit burned, casting moving shadows that melted into the darkness around the structures.

Managarm ducked down into the grass, lying flat as a stone.

Judy knew this meant he would wait for her, and she cursed herself for hesitating whether to bring Nick or not. Of course, she had to bring Nick. Was he a fox? Yes, but he was family – he was more even than that. She took his paw and led him out of the taller grass toward the standing stones. Her body tensed as she saw the figures of sheep, and Nick squeezed her paw in response.

"Hymwthiwr!" A shout echoed from within the circle of stones.

Judy's ears stood up and she stopped in her tracks.

Nick stayed on two feet, determined to appear as anything but a wolf – to show himself to be as civilized as any prey.

Sheep emerged from the stones. Two, then four – eight. Most of them held long objects at their hips, the weapons wolves called "flashing shards." They were larger than her, larger even then Nick, but Judy held her ground and set her eyes on them.

As they approached, wary, their ranks parted and a smaller figure appeared. Tall antlers rose up from its head, but it was no deer – this was a sheep, and on her head, she wore the antlers of deer. Her body was bare save what looked to be a skin wrapped around her waist.

"Dewch yn nes." Her voice called, cajoling but with the firm inflection of command.

Judy felt the hairs standing up on the back her neck.

"Peace! We wish only to talk." Judy managed to blurt out that much.

The sheep held their stances, and slowly the smaller female raised an arm to the sky.

"The spirits sent you." She spoke, her eyes shut tightly. "Come." The ewe turned and headed back into the circle of stones, and her retinue of rams with her. None of them questioned her words or gestures for a moment.

Judy turned to look up at Nick. "Do we go?"

"Do we have any choice? Wolves behind us, sheep before us, with the fate of our clan, rabbits, between it all? For the chance of wearing some clothes, I'd negotiate with a bear, Judy."

Judy fumed quietly. "Nick, no jokes, this is serious."

"I know." Nick mumbled, pulling Judy by the paw toward the standing stones.

As they entered they saw the stones from the other side, lit brightly by the roaring fire in the center near which a stone altar sat. The ewe paced around the fire, followed by three of the rams, while the others had sat themselves down at various points inside the circle. There was a great deal of space within, enough to fit four or five huts the size of those on Clan Hopps' land.

The sheep had no huts anywhere nearby. What purpose did this circle of stones hold? Judy knew precious little about the Whiteflock. Her mind searched and searched for possibilities, but she knew all those she could conjure would be warped by the fear pulsing in her veins as she fought her body's urge to flee. Only squeezing Nick's paw made her feel any more at ease.

Eventually, the ewe made her way back around to Nick and Judy, at whom she smiled.

"Welcome to the Circle. You are two, I am one with all. My name is Wawr."

Judy nodded quickly and responded, "And I am Judy. This is Nick. We are of Clan Hopps – a peaceful clan. We seek only to coexist."

Wawr's rectangular pupils danced over the pair as she scanned them anew in the light of the fire.

"The spirits spoke of a rabbit and a fox."

Judy had never heard spirits, nor had she heard of anyone who had. Her clan merely honored spirits – but to speak with them? It was unprecedented.

Nick looked incredulously at each one of the sheep. He kept his words in his mind rather than on his tongue. They were not kind words.

"What do you do here?" Judy asked, and added, "Can we rabbits not live in the lands to the south? We can farm, we-"

Wawr interrupted Judy and spoke loudly, reverently – was it because she was in the circle? "Here we commune. Here we divine." She gestured to the altar. It was a heavy stone, stained, and shone brightly in the firelight.

"Why are you wearing antlers? Where did you find them?" Nick demanded to know this at least. He wouldn't leave without an answer to something so glaring. Depending on her answer, he wouldn't want the Hopps Clan anywhere near them, peace or not.

"The Holy Beast is the only way to know truly the events not yet passed. I honor the Holy Beast with my vestments. What do you honor with yours? Or without." The final sentence was spoke with a suggestion of disapproval as she looked over Nick.

"N-nothing." Judy stammered, perplexed by the way the ewe spoke. She could not yet tell whether the ewe was friend or foe. But the sheep had attacked her, hadn't they? Or did they only attack because of those wolves?

"Without proper observation, you will never commune. The true ways are known only to we Defaidrwydd. The blood of the Holy Beast has shown us, has shown me, that a rabbit and a fox will come as emissaries, but not of peace. They will come as emissaries of war. The spirits are all I trust."

Before the weight of her words could settle, a howl came from the distance. The sheep reacted instantly, drawing their weapons and peering outside the circle.

Wawr cast a scornful glare onto Nick and Judy. "Prey who bed predators are as rotten as predators themselves. Blaidd! Lladd nhw!" She turned and ran to the altar, where she stood with both hooves against the stone as sheep surrounded her protectively.

Judy had seen enough. Already Nick was pulling her away from the sheep, baring his teeth at them. All around them sheep bleated bloodcurdling cries as slavering wolves drew closer around the circle. Only four of them, not the twelve they had met by that cave. Managarm was not among them; instead, Frija lead them.

As Frija pounced into the circle she bared her teeth like white thorns and pulled back her lips with a fearsome snarl.

"Attack!" She roared, and dodged the blades sheep swung at her.

The thirst for war and fear took hold and in seconds the gathering had sank into an oblivion of combat. The clouds rumbled overhead, and the sounds of hooves and paws striking about the earth in battle rung in Judy's ears. She turned to run, but found herself face to face with a sheep, towering over her and bleating a wrathful tone.

"No, this is all wrong!" Judy felt at her waist for her sling and took it up as the sheep raised his metal rod that flashed in the light of the fire. The first crack of lightning gave him startled pause, and a moment later he wailed as Nick's teeth sank into his leg. Judy ducked her head down and ran past him out of the circle, back to where they had parted from Managarm. Every instinct she had told her she would be safe there, despite all she had been taught as a child.

"Nick! Nick!" Judy's voice fell into the wind whipping by her ears as she ran, looking over her shoulder to try and catch sight of him. Only sheep followed her, but she thought she saw a flash of russet fur in the darkness. She felt for a stone in her pack, and placed it into her sling. This time, it was a special stone. When she shot it toward the sheep and past them, it whistled an unholy screech that sounded unlike the call of any mammal.

The sheep froze; one turned to the other and shouted, "Ysbryd!" They bleated in confusion and stopped giving chase.

Judy saw this and turned to face the circle, trotting backwards while she loaded another bullet. This one whistled fiendishly in the night, backed by a crack of lightning that struck at the right moment. Then something brushed against her, and Judy jumped away from it before its familiar scent hit her nose.

"Nick, what happened? They're still fighting!"

"I don't know, come on." Nick grabbed her at the waist, lifting her up off the ground, and carried her into the bush.

The collapsed into the taller grass, next to the vast shape of Managarm.

"Stop them! Why did you howl to attack? They hadn't yet attacked us!" Judy demanded, gasping for air.

Managarm shook his head. "Am no howl of mine. That am howl of Frija. She betray'th my orders to stoke her own flame. Now there am no peace hope. What learned you two, inside their circle?"

"The sheep are as you said. Strange. I don't know what she was trying to do. Some kind of leader, she was wearing deer antlers and skin."

"Then you know'th am not predators only hunt."

Judy frowned and gently patted Nick, who had placed her down but kept his arm around her still.

"So, you aren't sending them to fight?"

"Only fool wolf obey howl not mine. They am young, too fool. More sheep yet north. For now, we watch. There am naught else we can do-"

"Stop them!"

Managarm paused and turned his muzzle to Judy, who looked up at him imploringly. Thunder rumbled around them as he rose to his feet and let a howl echo into the night. It sounded twice as deep as any thunder and pulsed with rhythmic ululations. After the long peal, the old wolf crouched back down and looked into Judy's eyes.

"Those who live will return'th now, I hope. We watch."

In the depth of night, the fire caused all manner of shapes to dance around the circle of stones. Shapes of wolves and sheep in combat. Shapes of fleeing and fighting. Punctuated by a final, crackling strike of lightning and thunder, a great wave of rain began to fall. The fire in the circle darkened and Judy thought she could see sheep and wolves retreating.

"They're leaving." Nick muttered. "They're gone. I can't tell you how many."

"Then let's hope they don't return."


	10. Chapter 10

The journey back to the caves the wolves called home was a march without words. A heavy pall of silence hung over the path ahead and for a long time Nick, Judy, and the wolves heard little except their footfalls. It was an awkward, pained sort of trudging walk – a walk of failure and of uncertainty. Negotiations had collapsed in spectacular fashion, and had ended in a worse-case scenario that haunted Judy's every moment.

She could see the sheep every time she closed her eyes. When she lay down to sleep under the cover of a thicket and the brush of Nick's tail, she could still hear their bleating as snarling wolves traveled into their stone circle and bared teeth at them. She could feel an anger and an impotent helplessness at the betrayal. All she wanted was for the mammals of these lands to live in accord with each other.

The sky remained a stifling grey above the Meadowlands. After the storm that night, an absence of light seemed to follow them wherever they went, with the sun hiding behind the clouds and a stiff breeze stripping them of momentary comforts.

Even when the group stopped to eat, they exchanged no words and rarely so much as glanced at each other.

Soon the wolves' home cave came into view, with Skadi sitting there at the mouth. Upon seeing the other wolves and the haze of their grief, her ears folded down.

"I smell fewer among you now than when you departed." Skadi spoke, nose twitching. "Frija no more."

Nick grumbled, plopping himself down several feet from the cave and folding his arms. "It's her fault. She jumped out at those sheep, attacked them. Now we have no way of knowing if this has all been a misunderstanding. They must think we mean war." As he talked he picked at the grass in annoyance.

"There's got to be another way from here…" Judy thought allowed, watching as Managarm approached Skadi and licked her forehead with his tongue, red as a beet.

"She and three others. Dead, or merely lost - I know not but them to be traitors all."

"Then our pack grows four fewer."

A long, silent moment passed between all gathered. On the fringes of the clearings, wolves sat with doleful eyes and waited for instruction from their leader.

Judy ended the silence. "Will you come back with us now? To help us make a home of these lands?"

Managarm turned his head and nodded once. "Once wolf lands these. We hunted and howled on prey of all kinds. Now we sleep with rabbits and fend 'gainst sheep invaders. The Meadowlands deserve'th life anew."

Nick looked up, "I thought these were always sheep lands. Aren't we taking something from them?"

"North only. They rare cross into south but think it theirs, I surmise."

Judy turned to Nick, trying to jog her mind by looking into his eyes. She couldn't think of anything, and sat down next to him instead. As she stared ahead, her paw absently sought out Nick's and held it in her lap. She traced her fingers over his pawpads and claws, and sighed.

"We'll leave soon, as soon as we can. I want to see if my father is well now. I want to return to my clan before something worse happens."

"All of our kind will join you. Rabbits shall count'th wolves both amongst their clan, and I – I shall count rabbits in my pack."

"And foxes?" Nick piped up.

"And foxes. One I know."

As if guided by an invisible path, Judy found her way to the Hopps clan. She was glad to have the wolves, for their keen noses helped locate the rabbits in record time. Without their own home to go back to, they had to make a new home here, and Judy knew it would take some time to get used to the land. It would take some time for her to learn the paths as a scout and as well as she did where she was raised.

It would take some time for things to seem normal again.

When she saw the first hints of mammalmade construction and of tall ears sticking out above the brush, she knew she was home.

The problem of approaching with a band of wolves had been forefront in her mind ever since leaving the cave. Judy, in fact, rode atop Managarm for the vantage, while Nick walked with Skadi and carried one of her young cubs in his arms. They were quiet, but Judy was sure someone had seen them. Perhaps it was best she rode so visibly, for she hoped they would see her first.

"A wolf draws near!" The cry was hoarse and desperate. Judy couldn't even place which of her brothers or sisters it was. She patted the back of Managarm's neck to get him to stop, and he eased into a sitting position to allow her to slide off. Whistles sounded, the chirps and squeals of reeds and blades of grass being blown to create an alarm.

Many of the wolves raised their hackles in fear or nervousness, but Judy's confident stance did not waver. She waited for the alarms to die down before calling her name.

"I am Judy, Scout of the Hopps Clan! Hear my voice and know no danger from my companions!"

There was a moment of silence, tense as any, before a cheer came from the trees and bushes ahead. Left, right, and center, the ears of interested siblings popped out. Twitching, curious noses pushed from between leaves and from behind the cover of trees and their branches.

"Judy! It's Judy!" Several cried. They burst from the bushes, but held back for fear of the great beasts sitting just behind their beloved sister.

Peter tumbled from the brush and stopped short mid-run, one foot in the air. "Judy, look out!" He half-gasped, half-screamed.

"Come now, come… I show my back to this wolf, see?" Judy called back in announcement, taking several steps forward in font of Managarm. "At least you can show him your fronts! He is a friend. They are our friends."

Peter set his foot down and straightened himself. He rubbed his neck with a paw and took a step back. "Sorry, but… Not until mom and dad get here."

Caution held both groups at bay. The wolves sat on their haunches and flicked their ears at passing butterflies. The rabbits stayed huddled in the bushes for minutes, holding fast until Stu and Bonnie appeared from a space between some wild, thorny copse.

Stu looked well, and held Bonnie on his arm. His eyes, however, were set hard, and his brow was furrowed in assessment.

"Father; I have come, and I bring news. Will you let us all in? Have you marked this our new burrow? Have you laid stones on the fringe?"

Stu kept his eyes on Managarm. "Judy… This is… I agreed to this, yes. But I never thought I would see it. You have brought the wolves to the edge of our new land, and now I must honor what I have said."

Managarm cleared his throat. "Know that near or far my pack honor'th pact of ours for the come and go of twenty winters. We will not pactbreak now."

The other wolves were silent, as were the other rabbits.

Nick stood by, rocking the wolf cub in his arms while his ears stood high and he listened intently to the proceedings. The cub was just like any bunny. Small, harmless. He thought for sure that it could be raised just like he was. But did it need some special dispensation? He was surrounded by adult wolves who had sworn off meat and acted honorably. Did that mean predators were not inherently monstrous; that they could coexist just as he had?

"Alright, alright. Come on. We'll show you what we've done here." Stu offered, and turned to lead the group beyond the protection of the bushes and trees.

Peter skipped past them, not sparing a moment to look over his shoulder.

Judy followed dutifully, and the pack of wolves paced behind her. As they walked, they exchanged glances with anxious and inquisitive rabbits, many of whom were reevaluating their conceptions of wolves as "mountains of fur and teeth, with claws like branches and eyes like raging fire."

The wolves, too, had to reconsider ideas of warlike rabbits.

"Our kind have not known congress for decades." Stu said. He pushed through a gathering of bushes and into a clearing.

It was vast, and the structures Judy had seen from afar were huts and homes for her family. It hadn't been that long, but so many rabbits could quickly complete projects. Already there were paths of dirt where grass had been walked upon hundreds of times. Firepits and storage tunnels were dug. There were signs of construction in process all throughout the open area. Rabbits cleared brush and prepared to plant fields.

The wolves, for all their trepidation, were in awe of the rabbits' ingenuity.

"We will need to make larger huts, it seems. Right, Judy?" Bonnie spoke over her shoulder before separating from Stu. She turned to Judy and Nick and paused for a moment, meeting their eyes. As she approached, she looked to the wolf standing at Nick's side.

This wolf watched the cub in Nick's arms and two others at her feet, and she did not look elsewhere.

"You are their mother. In a way, I am his." Bonnie gestured to Nick, and Nick looked up with a smile. "May I hold this one?"

Startled, Skadi lifted her head. She paused. "Yes. She." She said breathlessly.

Nick held the cub out in his arms. She squirmed and wagged her tail as Bonnie took her and cradled her.

"I remember when you were small enough to hold like this." Bonnie said softly, a smile tugging at the edges of her lips. "And you too, Judy."

"Things are going to be alright, aren't they mom? Dad?"

"I fed one predator; I can feed ten." Stu replied.

"Brothers and sisters, will you honor them as they have honored us? These wolves have saved Nick and I both."

A myriad of acceptances came like a flood – little siblings that looked up to Judy like no other, and even older siblings who had always respected her force of will. Some of the younger ones, in fact, imagine they could grow up to be just like her.

Judy could even see Lucinda standing there in the crowd of family. She seemed just a bit taller than last time she saw her, her tail ears tied back with a length of cord. The fur on her knees and elbows was tousled and ruffled. She offered a wave to Judy, which Judy returned.

There were those who were unsure. Those who stood on the fringes, arms folded, and with eyes burning into the strange and fearsome beasts Judy had brought back with her.

Bonnie's mother was among them, and she could silence herself no longer.

"Bonnie! You hold that creature in your arms – do you forget what they've done? How they killed your father?"

Abigail stepped forward, her can jamming into the earth and she separated from the other two elders – Stu's parents – and shook her head in disdain. She was hunched, her eyes bright but squinted, and her fur carried a bit more white-grey than the brown she had been in her youth.

"Mother," Bonnie replied, "One wolf of many. Not this one." She looked down at the cub.

"And if not that one, then that one!" Abigail scowled, pointing her cane at the enormous sable-furred wolf who led the pack.

Managarm responded calmly. "One wolf, true, killed a rabbit. One wolf guilty – a pack guilty. This we say'th. The wolf killed a rabbit am not here."

"Then where?" Stu spoke up, walking to his mother in law to steady her. She was shaking with anger. "Where is this wolf?"

Managarm and Judy exchanged a glance. Nearby, Nick watched the proceedings in a quiet sort of fear.

"Gone." Managarm muttered. "Gone, she. Twixt the talk with Whiteflock did she leap'th out to attack. To betray attempts at peace. She and some others gone. Gone from pack. Not my pack now."

Judy was nearly in shock. Frija was the wolf who killed her grandfather, the one who began all the enmity between their kind.

Frustrated and confused, she cleared her mind before nodding in Managarm's support. "He speaks the truth. We attempted to broach peace with the Whiteflock. Their ways were odd – unknown to me and like no story you've ever told, father. They wore antlers and spoke of blood and holy beasts."

All around them, Judy could see her siblings looking at each other in baffled concern. Had she said too much about the Whiteflock and the wolves? If coexistence was going to work, she needed them to be unafraid.

Despite this, there was much that Judy was afraid of.

"Look, if you want to know what I saw – I couldn't tell you. But I know the wolves we brought are the good ones. Right? Right?" Nick turned to Managarm expectantly.

"We eat of the Earth. Not one prey be hunted, not one. Like you."

As Managarm spoke, Skadi lowered her snout and felt a grim, guilty pain in her stomach.

"What shall we do? Believe these… creatures?" Abigail demanded, leaning against Stu as if she were close to fainting. "I can't stand the thought of it."

"Mother," Bonnie handed the cub back to Nick, and moved toward Stu and Abigail. "I feel the same agony. I miss my father. But these wolves did not do the deed. You know the truth – you know what Stu witnessed that day. Their own admonishment of the one who did. If they can protect us from the Whiteflock, then we may not have a choice. We may need them."


	11. Chapter 11

It was night. Clan Hopps set with the sun, and outside labor ground to a halt as the light sank beneath the hills of the meadowlands. Judy and all her brothers and sisters had been working throughout the day, and found the wolves to be of great help. They could lift larger objects, pull heavier loads, and were altogether more hale and eager to work. To them, this territory was not unfamiliar. To them, it had been near home all along.

"I'd never have thought such deep and accommodating burrows could be dug in such little time. And the huts we have built across the openings – they are strong; fortified against the winds from the East."

Stu had been surveying work. What was once an encampment had grown into some semblance of a village, with paths cleared. The rabbits had tilled fields of soil and begun planting. The soil was rich, vibrant and of an encouraging texture. No one doubted their fortune, nor the bounty that was soon to be reaped once the crops grew to yield.

Judy spoke carefully. "There has been no sign of the Whiteflock. No sign of the other wolves. It may be so that in their animosity they destroyed each other." She remained tense all throughout her shoulders and legs since first returning to her family. She and her father were walking a path from the hut of the elders to the edge of a field. The first signs of emerald saplings could be seen peeking through the loam.

Stu placed his paw upon Judy's shoulder and let her see his smile. "My daughter. There is too much worry in the world. I hope you can release yours soon. We have been vigilant, we have been brave and considerate of our allies. For once, your old father can sleep with both eyes closed."

Judy nodded. She let her shoulders relax, sinking them below her neckline with a deep exhalation, consciously willing herself to remain calm. The dim sunset was soothing, as were the remnants of a westward breeze. She thought that one day it would be nice to see the ocean she had heard about. There was no question that Nick would like to see it too, despite the warnings of danger. After all, she had overcome much that the elders and her father had once told her was beyond dangerous.

"We have accomplished much in a week. With wolves, it is as if a month has passed. For all their teeth and their great size, they have many kindnesses to offer."

Stu rubbed his paw against the straps of his clothing, and looked to the first sprinkling of stars appearing in the sky overhead, like droplets of water in a sloshed vessel.

"I cannot deny that. Prudence, even, tells me she grows used to their presence. The one who killed your grandfather is not among them, this I trust to be true. I know the word of the old wolf. Managarm. He kept it for a dozen years twice. What we feared for all this time may have been nothing more than a moment's hardship. Judy, tell your old father he's been a fool, and tell him he has time yet to mend his ways."

Judy could hear the calls of her siblings, particularly the younger ones, echoing up from the burrows behind them.

She took care not to smile too large. "Father, you have been a smart mammal longer than you realize." With that, she turned and hugged Stu tightly, pressing her soft cheeks against his neck and, a moment later, feeling his arms around her. After a few tender seconds, she broke the embrace and half-skipped back toward the settlement, toward their home.

Stu watched her leave, bewildered by her meaning.

Judy moved past tiny young brothers and sisters, tracing shapes in the dirt with twigs and playing invented games of some kind or another. She took great care not to walk through the bared soil and soft ground where these symbols had been carved, instead hopping over them with a laughter that was echoed by her siblings.

"Nick!" She called, waving her arms.

Nick was near the largest of the huts. It covered a deep tunnel they had dug and supported with the trunks of old trees tied together with braided cord. The smell of predator fur clung to the structure, but she did not approach with the trepidation of her past self. She threw herself toward it, knowing who she would find inside.

Nick sat just within the remaining light at the mouth of the hut. Between his legs, he kept a nosy wolf cub from scampering off into the village. Nearby, the cub's mother sat suckling two others.

"Kida, aren't you hungry? You have to stay here. For you mother." Nick was talking to the cub. Kida had rolled onto his back and was gyrating his paws upward toward Nick's. Their pads met and the cub laughed just like and toddling bunny might.

Judy stopped there before Nick looked up. She realized it now, the way he had taken to this cub and the others. These were the cubs that, had she followed her fear that first fateful day, would have lost their mother. A withering guilt entered her as she thought how, without Skadi, the cubs would have survived. It was simple. They would not have survived at all.

But Judy had followed her heart, not her fear. The reward, at the time, seemed to be little more than another day in the meadowlands, scouting and alive. She knew now it was far greater. The small, fuzzy bodies of the wolf cubs were as precious as her siblings.

If what she felt about the cubs was relief, what she felt about Nick was pride.

Here he was, a fox raised by rabbits, as rabbit as any other, and he had overcome any fears from the first moment he saw Skadi. He was caring for the cubs, helping their mother keep watch of them, and showing them how he, at times, walked upright like the rabbits.

Nick was older than Judy. Could it be that he wanted to be a father?

"Nick." Judy spoke softly so as not to frighten the cubs. She stood with her head down, her back arched and knees bent. "Hello. These three certainly seem to keep you busy, don't they? You always were good at taking care of our youngest brothers and sisters… Moreso than me, even."

Nick did not take his eyes off the cub, but he responded, "There is harder work to be done, but little as important as raising the young. And, they're too cute." He said softly, petting the Kida's while his mother watched.

"Where are the other wolves?"

Skadi spoke this time, and inclined her head forward so that her muzzle stuck out from the shadows.

"You will laugh." Her voice was soft, kind, but halted as she searched her mind for words she had only just recently learned from the rabbits. "My pack left with your rabbits. Wolves live these lands. We show rabbits where to find the berries and the earthfruits." Skadi looked as if she could barely contain her laughter. "Perhaps you call it hunt. A gentle hunt." She couldn't help it, and laughed, and as she did her teeth bared and her cubs jostled at her chest. She noticed the latter and turned her head down to them. "Sorry." She cooed.

"We are grateful for your wisdom." Judy bowed her head. "Nick, have you seen mom?"

Nick nodded. "Still working on her new grove. Preparing the soil for the flowers. I think Managarm helps her work."

A twinge of nervousness ran up Judy's spine. Her mother, alone with the leader of the wolves. She caught herself before she thought anything worse of it, but she had to go and see for herself. She waved her goodbye to Nick and the others before trotting off toward the place Bonnie had chosen.

The wolves had done so much for her without asking anything in return. How could she still feel a cloud of nervous fear?

Judy pushed the feelings from her mind and from her body. She resolved that she would never again shake or fret due to the wolves. If she was honest with herself, could she not call them more than comrades? Why not friends?

Judy lost herself in the pines on the way to her mother's grove. Bonnie liked to construct quiet little gardens in clearings amidst trees, regardless of how safe it was. There were so many kin in the Hopps Clan that Judy was danger had never drawn near their settlements without an alarm being raised.

The night sky peeked through the treetops, and Judy supposed that even without the thread of danger, so late in the night, it would be best for Bonnie to leave the garden. Just what was she doing with Managarm, so late?

"Mother?" Judy called. She followed the path, deeper into the dark woods. A light caught her eye, and she pushed deeper. The smell of wildflowers soared across her nose, and she knew she was in the grove.

There sat Bonnie, with the great wolf Managarm. His head rested in her lap, and she stroked his ears. He seemed asleep, as peacefully as a newborn. Beside them, a torch stuck out of the ground, flames gently licking away into the night.

"You've made your peace, is that right?" Judy asked with a hint of a smile. She approached slowly, and as she did Managarm slowly opened one eye.

"Your father is not the only one who makes decisions." Bonnie asserted, both paws on the wolf's head.

He was old. The fur around his muzzle gray, his face tired and his demeanor sapped of youthful energy. Judy hadn't realized until seeming him here in this firelight, seeming vulnerable and weak. How long had he been struggling out there in the wilds, directing his diminishing pack of wolves and scavenging where he could without the benefit of a farm? She knew now the rabbits had it, with their stewardship of the land and their expertise raising plants from mere seedlings.

Compared to predators, they lived like gods, creating food from nothing.

"Spoke we of the future. She am kind, mother rabbit. The new pact am food for protection."

Judy kneeled down in front of the wolf. He could snap her up in one bit, couldn't he? The largest of the wolves, the most fearsome.

And yet, she could see the fur around his eyes wet. He cried pitifully, overcome with relief.

"Long have I sought safety for my cubs, and my cubs of cubs. That rabbits should save my kind… Bring'th forth a well of feeling. I had not guessed, ever, we would receive such kindnesses. When comes my turn to die, I will not worry for my pack."

Bonnie made a soothing sound, blowing air past her lips, and patting the wolf's head.

Her voice was soft as new grass. "You've many years yet, you old fool. Quiet, now. Judy, do you see? All mammals have such feelings. This we must remember for the future, no matter what we face."

Judy nodded. She thought of the Whiteflock. Should they return, or should Frija, they would try to broker some peace.

All had come around. Judy and Nick were safe. Their new home rose up from the earth as they built and burrowed and tamed the land. Allies now kept them company, helped them grow and change, to think more deeply of the relationships between the species. Wolf, fox, and rabbit now lived in concert, and over the next few weeks, they could hardly imagine any other way of life.

It was a time of prosperous beginnings. And, between Judy and Nick, of love.

Perhaps, one day, they would face hardship. The return of old enemies.

But Judy held a different hope.

Perhaps one day they would be bound in a ceremony of love and dedication to one another.


End file.
